V 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

BV 155 




Shelf. „iJGl75 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ftB * 3 ^ ttb 



NORMAL STUDIES FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS. 



Nt 



THE YOUNG TEACHER: 

AN ELEMENTARY HANDBOOK OF 

SUNDAY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 



S BY 

WILLIAM H. GROSER, B.Sc. (Lond.), 

AUTHOR OF "THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER'S MANUAL," "JOSHUA AND HIS 

SUCCESSORS," "READY FOR WORK," "THE TEACHER'S MODEL," 

" ILLUSTRATIVE TEACHING," ETC., ETC. 



%<* 



PREPARED UNDER TEE DIRECTION OF TEE 
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE hOR NORMAL STUDY. 



~ 



FEB i3 1983 

BOSTON^ 
(Eongrepttonal ^unoag^rijool antr $3itblisfjmjj ^octctg, 

CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE. 



American Edition, Copykighted, 1885. 



The UnuRARir 



WASHINGTON 



*® 



PUBL ISHERS' NOTE. 



The plates of the Normal Studies for Sunday-School Teach- 
ers have been purchased by the Congregational Sunday-School 
and Publishing Society, from the London Sunday-School Union, 
together with the right to publish the books, so far as that right 
can be transferred. The officers of the London Sunday-School 
Union, in their communication transferring the plates to the 
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, declare 
that, "so far as this Union is concerned, we shall not supply 
any plates of the works to any other House in America ; and, 
so far as we can, we shall recognize your Society as being 
publishers of the works referred to." 

Various revisions and additions have been made to the text ; 
and a copyright has been obtained to this edition. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Sunday School, its Scope and Aims ... ... ... 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Chief Qualifications of the Sunday School Teacher 13 

CHAPTER III. 

Principles of Instruction, and their Relation to Bible 

Teaching ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 

CHAPTER IV. 
Methods of Instruction : their Use in Bible Teaching 62 

CHAPTER V. 
Bible Lessons, and how to prepare them ... ... 74 

CHAPTER VI. 
Class Teaching ... ... ... ... ... ... 92 

CHAPTER VII. 
Class Management ... ... ... ... ... ... 109 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Helps and Hindrances — Encouragements -— Concluding 
Hints ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 116 



The other volumes of Normal Studies novj ready are as 

follows : — 

THE BIBLE: THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL, TEXT-BOOK. 
By Alfred Holborn, M. A. Price 75 cts. 

Contents. — Introductory letters by J. H. Vincent, D.D., Rev. 
A. E. Dunning, and the author. Evidences of the Authenticity and 
Genuineness of the Bible : Formation of the Canon : Characteristics 
of the Books : Language and Style of Scripture : Study of Scripture 
with Reference to Sunday-school Instruction : Means of Religious 
Instruction in the Old and New Testament : The Teaching Process, 
as Exemplified in the Bible. 

PRIMER OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE. By R. A. Red- 
ford, M.A., LL.B. Price 75 cts. 

Contents. — I. What Christianity is. — II. "What the Credentials 
of Christianity are. — III. What Christianity is to the World. — IV. 
How Christian Evidences should be Studied. — V. How to Teach the 
Old Testament. 



Address all orders to the Congregational Sunday 
School and Publishing Society, corner Beacon and 
Somerset Streets, Boston. 



Introduction to tfje American lE&itton- 



Normal work is as much needed in the preparation of 
Sunday-school as in the preparation of day-school teachers. 
Subjects may vary, bat the souls to be taught are the 
same. The same mind is to be reached, aroused, and 
quickened. The same laws are to be discovered, studied, 
and obeyed. Perhaps more serious and perplexing diffi- 
culties lie in the way of the religious than of the secular 
teacher, for he deals with another realm of being and with 
the relations and responsibilities which belong to it. He 
deals with abstract theories, with doctrines that lay hold 
of an invisible, infinite, and eternal world, and with ethical 
principles embodied in specific laws which appeal to the 
conscience, condemn the flesh, and give a solemn signifi- 
cance to this life. 

He has only occasional access to his pupils and contin- 
uous, active influence is almost impossible. What he 
does must be done wisely, promptly, and with economy of 
force. He has one day instead of five to make himself 
felt, and on that day only one hour instead of five. 

He must know what not to attempt, that what he does 
attempt may prove successful. He must know how to 
begin and how to end ; how to get at the truth his pupils 
know, that he may incite and inspire them to know more ; 
how to fix attention, excite curiosity, stimulate inquiry; 



VI INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

how to bring heart and will into connection with intellect, 
that knowledge may flow into the interior soul and be 
transformed into resolve and love, and then be projected 
into the outward life. 

He must stretch wires from Sunday to Sunday, and with 
them touch every-day life at a thousand points, that ener- 
gies of truth may sweep from the church to the shop, the 
field, the market, the kitchen, the parlor, and the school, 
and suggestions of divine significance spring, through the 
teacher's skill and foresight, from the objects and facts 
that fill the experiences and observations of every-day 
life. 

The teacher's power is not so much in what he tells or 
gives at particular seasons of contact with his pupils, as it 
is in the awakening of the pupil to self-activity, in the 
wealth of thought he opens to him in connection with all 
things of life and of the world, and in the atmosphere of 
sympathy with all truth and good he breathes into the 
world in which his pupil lives and thinks. 

Normal work does more for the teacher, as his work 
does more for the pupil, than can be seen in the handling 
of specific lessons. The best things of Normal training 
cannot be put into lesson hours, as flowers are arranged 
in a vase or jewels in a crown. Normal work, like all 
teaching-work, tells as atmosphere tells, as exercise tells in 
its reflex influence, or as inspiration tells, not in words, but 
in flashing eyes, in unstudied and effective gestures, in 
thrilling nerves, in magnetic out-givings that fill the air 
and sway the souls of men. One may trace and test laws 
of pedagogy for a long time, and not be able to put his 
finger on tangible and positive results. But, other things 
being equal, there are results. Pupils feel them although 
they do not know whence they came. Teachers are not 
themselves aware of the degree of "virtue " that has gone 



INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Vll 

out of them through the "touch" of eager and inspired 
scholars. [Something binds teacher and taught together. )7q. 
Something gives keen insight, ready adaptation, myste- 
rious and invigorating accessions of joy and strength in 
the work of teaching ; and, as the years go by, the practical 
work in task and test is transformed into life. The Nor- 
mal work has told on the soul, and the soul tells on other 
souls as knowledge, ingenuity, tact, enthusiasm, and power 
increase. 

The Sunday-school teacher has a peculiar text-book — 
one and various, ancient and yet ever new, deep with the 
depth of divine wisdom and full of inexplicable problems, 
and yet so simple that children may be beguiled by its 
charming stories and instructed by its clear and forcible 
puttings of law and promise. The book is more than the 
teacher. It almost teaches itself, without intermediary or 
interpreter. It is the Word of God, and the Spirit who 
gave it waits to apply it. It is, from one point of view, a 
difficult thing to make a failure of teaching it. It does 
seem sometimes that even Stupidity with Bible in hand 
and sincerity in heart, will win a way to the conscience 
and stir the soul to solicitude about eternal things. The 
Book is a magic sword, mightier than the arm that wields 
it and giving power to him who grasps the hilt. With 
this advantage we may have good hope of success in our 
work, and are encouraged to greater faithfulness in prep- 
aration for it. Valuable and effective as is the Book, it is 
according to the divine order that those who teach should 
first learn, and that the Book should be used by teacher 
and scholar with Faith, and Prayer, and Study. 

Normal work in Sunday-school is no new thing. Long- 
before Chautauqua opened, such Normal classes were or- 
ganized and conducted both in England and America. 
The Chautauqua impulse has been felt and acknowledged 



Vlll INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

on both sides of the sea. Most of the assemblies which 
have sprung up from the Chautauqua root have used the 
course of Normal lessons which was instituted at Chau- 
tauqua years ago by a Normal committee representing 
nine different denominations. The International Normal 
course, for the outlining of which, a committee was ap- 
pointed in London in 1880, is but a later development of 
the Chautauqua inter-denominational course, and I rejoice 
in its appearance and welcome the valuable English text- 
books, which have been adopted for and adapted to our 
use on this side of the Atlantic, and to which I have been 
requested to write this introduction. 

May the intellectual and teaching power of our Sunday- 
school workers be abundantly increased through this new 
form of an old instrumentality ; and may we all learn that 
human wisdom and skill, however valuable as media of 
the Divine grace, are impotent and vain without that 
grace ; and knowing this, may we all seek at all times and 
for all our work, the consciousness of His presence through 
whom we " can do all things ! " 

J. H. Vincent. 

New Haven, Ct., Dec. 25, 1884. 



THE YOUNG TEACHER. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, ITS SCOPE AND AIMS. 

A Case supposed. — A bright lad of the present day, 
just entering upon his teens, and beginning to exert his 
powers of reflection, might naturally feel some curiosity 
respecting the institutions by which he sees himself sur- 
rounded. Here are legal enactments, social customs, and 
domestic habits, which are generally recognized in their 
several spheres; which cannot be ignored or resisted 
without more or less of inconvenience ; and to compliance 
with which the individual is prompted by a sense of mental 
or moral obligation. If the young thinker appealed to 
parents or friends for some explanation of this state of 
things, he would probably gain but scanty assistance in 
his quest. They, like himself, did not make these institu- 
tions, but found them what they still are; and yielded 
obedience to them as the most easy and proper course to 
pursue, without analyzing their principles or tracing their 
history. 

Whence is the Sunday School ? — In like manner, 
a Christian young man or woman, lately appointed to the 
charge of a class of children in a Sunday school — and it 
is to such that these pages are specially addressed — might 

B 



4 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

feel disposed to make some inquiries concerning the great 
religious and educational institution which is already 
claiming him or her as one of its active members. 

The cases, indeed, are not very dissimilar. You have 
probably been under Sunday school influences as long as 
you can remember. There your religious life had its con- 
scious beginnings, concurrently with the hymns learned, 
the Scripture repeated, and the prayers said, at a mother's 
knee. There, as a child, you realized something of 
spiritual companionship and a spiritual home. And there, 
as years went on, your interest in Divine troth was 
quickened into personal repentance and faith ; issuing in 
personal decision for Christ, and a voluntary profession of 
faith in Him. As the fitting outcome of such profession, 
you have yielded to the invitation to work in a field which 
has been to yourself so fruitful in blessings. What is 
more natural, then, than to seek a fuller acquaintance with 
the nature and objects of an institution in which you have 
found your sphere of Christian service ? 

A Short Answer. — The Sunday school, as we find 
it, after a full hundred years of existence, is a vigorous, 
popular, and aggressive agency. We discern that it is in 
operation in almost every section of the Protestant Church ; 
that it flourishes on an extensive scale in Great Britain, 
America, and the Colonies ; and that it is steadily taking 
root in other countries of Europe and Asia, adapting itself 
with marvellous flexibility to the varied peculiarities and 
requirements of different nationalities. The Sunday school 
has hosts of friends and sympathizers (even if their 
sympathy be only a sentiment) in all ranks and classes of 
society ; its severest critics are rarely its avowed oppo- 
nents ; while Christian men and women in general agree 
to recognize in it one of the noblest, most useful, and most 
encouraging products of modern religious life. 

This, however, is a mere bird's-eye view of the Sunday 
school ; a nearer inspection is desirable. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, ITS SCOPE AND AIMS. 5 

The True Theory of the Sunday School. — We must 
put aside false conceptions. The Sunday school is not a 
temporary expedient, or a charitable agency, or a scheme 
for the benefit of this or that class in society ; and it will 
never realize its full capabilities, or attain its true spiritual 
vigour, until these cramped and misleading notions have 
give«n place to nobler conceptions of its scope and aim. 

The same Divine authority which uttered the ancient 
law, " These words which I command thee this day . . . 
thou shalt teach diligently to thy children" and re-enacted 
it under the new dispensation, " Bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord," also gave to His 
Church, through its first representatives, the kindred law, 
" Feed My lambs " — the lambs whom, under another 
figure, He had previously included among the subjects of 
His "kingdom." This twofold commission, to the parent 
on the one hand, and to the Church on the other, entrusting 
the religious instruction of the young not to either, but to 
both, has never been repealed. It is too often neglected 
by the former, it has been too often overlooked by the 
latter ; but the duty remains unchanged. It rests on each, 
and no degree of fidelity on the part of the one can excuse 
the want of it on the side of the other. 

Now, the Sunday School is emphatically the Church's 
recognized method of fulfilling her mission to the young. 
It is not implied that there never was or never can be a 
fulfilment of that mission in other forms ; it is sufficient 
to point to the fact that no other, comparable in simplicity, 
extent, or effectiveness, has been hitherto devised. The 
spiritual necessities of children and youth, which this 
institution aims to meet, are, it is almost needless to 
remark, as wide as humanity itself. All distinctions of 
social rank or mental culture melt away in presence of the 
searching truth, " Ye must be born again." No " tem- 
porary agencies " will meet a claim which cannot cease 
until the last unrepentant soul has been brought to the 



6 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

foot of the Cross. Nor can Sunday schools well be super- 
seded by any day-school system in existence. The best 
friends of the rising generation do not hesitate to declare, 
that the new machinery which the last twelve years have 
called into action in this country has rendered Sunday 
schools not less, but more important and useful, than before 
— more essential, as a Cabinet Minister has lately reminded 
us, to the religious life of England than ever. 

It can hardly be otherwise. In whatever degree the 
understanding is informed and the mental powers developed 
by the schoolmaster, a corresponding demand is made upon 
the parent and the Church to train and develop, in like 
proportion, the moral and spiritual faculties ; otherwise 
the result will be, not harmony, but deformity of character. 
And thankful as Christian teachers and parents may well 
be for whatever amount of moral and religious influence 
the day school may exert on the young, that influence is 
mostly incidental and subordinate, and its amount com- 
paratively small. In reference to direct religious instruc- 
tion and impression, the compromise which underlies our 
board school system must of necessity reduce them to a 
minimum. Narrative portions of the Bible, only read, 
and read as a part of school tasks, can scarcely be expected, 
even by the most sanguine, to be grasped in their deeper 
or more didactic bearings by the volatile minds of children, 
especially amidst the heterogeneous crowd of secular 
topics which enthusiastic specialists, more learned than 
practical, and more pertinacious than either, have gradually 
wedged into the weekly curriculum. Nor will any true 
educator hear with much surprise the statement recently 
made by a public school teacher : " I have forty boys under 
my care, and not one of them would hesitate to tell a lie if 
it were at all to his apparent interest to do so." It is not to 
such institutions, however necessary and useful, that we 
must look for the moral and religious culture of the young. 
Cardinal Manning has most truly observed, when writing 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, ITS SCOPE AND AIMS. 7 

on this question, " Christianity will be sustained, as it was 
first diffused, by teaching, and by teaching all that the 
Divine Author commanded us to believe and to do." And 
in that great truth the credentials of the Sunday school 
teacher may assuredly be found. 

The Teacher's Calling. — "Ye see," then, young 
teachers, " your calling : " and a noble calling it is. No 
grander work can enlist the energies of a consecrated 
mind and heart. To teach is the noblest of earthly pro- 
fessions ; to teach the revealed will of God, the highest 
sphere in which that profession can be pursued. Yours is 
a Divine evangelism, a spiritual ministry, a sacred pas- 
torate, a " cure of souls." Wherefore let each true 
successor of apostles and prophets " take heed " to him- 
self "and to the teaching." 

The Teacher's Aims. — It may still be inquired, " If 
such be the scope and purpose of the work, as a whole, 
what are to be the specific aims of the individual teacher, 
and by what means are those aims to be pursued P " No 
more important question can be asked by a young Christian 
brought face to face with a group of children, whose 
opening minds await his utterances, and whose unformed 
characters lie plastic to his touch. A full answer would 
extend far beyond the limits of the present little hand- 
book; but a few leading principles may be given in 
outline, by way of suggestion. 

First Principles. — You have probably heard much, 
from pulpit and platform, and have also read not a little 
in tracts, magazine articles, and perhaps in larger treatises, 
concerning " the objects of Sunday school teaching," and 
may have felt somewhat bewildered by the seeming differ- 
ences of opinion. You have been told, for instance, that 
the teacher's object should be " to lead his scholars to 
Christ ; " " to lead them into the way of peace ; " " to 
persuade them to repent; " "to persuade them to be- 
lieve ; " " to secure their conversion ; " " to secure their 



8 THE YOUNG TKACHKK. 

salvation ; " " to train them in the knowledge of God's 
Word;" "to train them in Christian life;" " to bring 
them into union with Christ ; " " to touch their hearts 
with a Saviour's love ; " " to bring them to decision ; " 
" to form their religious characters ; " " to seek for them 
the baptism of the Holy Spirit ; " " to make them dis- 
ciples ; " " to put them into Christ's hands : " and so on, 
through almost endless varieties of phraseology, according 
to the mental or theological bias of the speaker or writer. 
Carefully examined, these apparent divergences will be 
found to have a substantial unity, representing merely 
different aspects of the same great process in its successive 
stages. Putting aside technical peculiarities of theological 
belief and expression, the following truths appear to the 
writer to be plainly taught by Christ and His apostles : — 

1. That man is by nature sinful, guilty, and alienated 

from God. 

2. That God, in His infinite love, has provided a means 

of pardon and restoration through a Divine 
Redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

3. That Jesus Christ, by His obedience to the Divine 

law, and. by His atoning death, has procured the 
means of man's forgiveness, restoration to the 
Divine favour, and personal renewal. 

4. That this renewal involves a vital change in man's 

moral and spiritual nature. 
This change is presented in the New Testament 
under a great variety of figures (it being only by 
symbolic language that spiritual phenomena can 
be rendered intelligible) ; as, for example, a new 
birth (" regeneration ") ; a turning round (" con- 
version ") ; a return to God ; a coming to one's right 
mind; an adoption; a deliverance or u salvation ; " 
a clothing anew ; a laying hold of a hope ; a rest ; 
a transformation ; a building in ; a planting anew ; 
and many other striking and suggestive emblems. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, ITS SCOPE AND AIMS. 9 

5. The Agent by whom the change is effected is, in all 

cases, the Holy Spirit. 

6. The ordinary mode by which the Holy Spirit effects 

the change is by revealing to the sinner his true 
condition ; revealing Christ as the manifestation 
of God's love, and the Way of forgiveness and 
restoration ; and so leading him to repentance and 
to the acceptance of the Divine offer of salvation. 

7. The sinner accepts the Divine offer by faith; that 

is, belief in " the record which God has given of 
His Son," and trust in that Son, as a Saviour 
alike from the guilt and the power of sin. 

8. The effect of the change is a godly life, maintained 

by the continued operations of the same Spirit, 

and manifested in personal holiness and Christian 

service, to be further developed and perfected in 

a future state of being.* 

Place of Human Instrumentality. — Accepting the 

foregoing principles as substantially, however imperfectly, 

expressing the Scripture doctrine of man's salvation by 

Christ, it may be further asked, "What place has human 

effort in a work so manifestly Divine ? " 

The answer is not far to seek. The Holy Spirit, in 
effecting the change on which we have just been dwelling, 
does not act directly on the human soul, but indirectly 
through objective (i.e. outward or external) truth — the 
truth concerning God's plan of redemption, as embodied 
in the Scriptures. " The Spirit " acts through " the 
Word ; " and this Word appeals to the heart and con- 
science through the understanding, and by means of 
human language. If this were all, it is obvious that 
the silent dissemination of the Scriptures everywhere 
would be the chief aggressive work of the Church ; and 
evangelistic ministries, at home and abroad, would be 

* It will be desirable for each reader personally to test the accuracy 
of the above statements by reference to the Word of God. 



10 THE YOUNG TEACHER, 

concentrated in one vast Bible Society. But it is not all. 
The wisdom of God has seen fit to ordain that His gospel 
should be made known to man through man, and that 
it should be communicated by word of mouth, and not 
simply in written language. It has pleased Him " by 
the foolishness of preaching " in its varied forms, public 
and private, " to save them that believe ; " or, as the 
same apostle presents it, under another figure, the 
heavenly " treasure" has been stored " in earthen vessels, 
that the excellency of the power may be of God." And 
with this human effort, if faithfully put forth, there is 
a Divine co-operation, without which it must be utterly 
ineffective ; for the principle holds good now, in the 
humblest Christian labour, on which the first triumphs 
of the Cross were won : " The Lord working with them, 
and confirming the Word with signs following." 

Summary; — Objects and Means. — To sum up and 
apply what has been advanced, though without attempting 
to explain all the phrases which have been quoted con- 
cerning this work — 

Firstly, the supreme object of the Sunday school 
teacher should be, to lead to repentance and faith in Christ 
such of his scholars as have not taken that solemn step, 
and to train in the life of faith those who have. (Probably, 
a larger proportion of the latter would be found in Sunday 
school classes if sought for.) In the former case, he 
seeks conversion, decision, reconciliation with God, submission 
to Christ; in the latter, growth in grace, sanctification, 
conformity to Chrises example, obedience to Sis precepts, 
discipleship, service, formation of Christian character. 

Secondly, the means to be adopted for the attainment 
of this object are, Instruction * and Personal Influence ; 
or, in more familiar phrase, teaching and training. 

# Instruction was well defined by the late Professor Payne, as 
" the orderly placing of knowledge in the mind ; " and education as 
" the harmonious development of the faculties " Instruction and train- 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, ITS SCOPE AND AIMS. 11 

Primarily, the Sunday school is a place for instruction — 
the teaching of God's Word. But the force of instruction 
is increased tenfold by example and personal influence, by 
which the teacher is enabled to train as well as direct. 

Personal Influence and Example. — Doubtless, 
there are many pious workers in the Sunday school field 
who, from circumstances beyond their control, see but 
little of their pupils, except for the short time of class- 
meeting on the sabbath ; and such would appear to be 
capable of doing little or nothing in the way of personal 
training. Happily it is not quite thus. It is scarcely 
possible to come into contact with a band of young 
people, though, it be but for one or two hours weekly, 
without growing interested in their everyday life and 
experiences, and so becoming desirous of being something 
more than a sabbath instructor. They quickly respond 
to this desire; and, gaining their affection and confidence, 
the teacher becomes, in a large proportion of instances, 
(■their "gui$e, philosopher, and friend.'Lj Acquaintance 
deepens interest, and interest leads to action ; and so, 
around the primary work of the Sunday school, there 
springs up an ever-increasing throng of subsidiary 
agencies, designed for the benefit of the scholars, and 
strikingly exemplifying the ingenuity of Christian love 
and zeal. Some promote moral and intellectual culture ; 
others, especially in poorer districts, afford direct or 
indirect pecuniary assistance ; while others, again, take 
the form of purely recreative engagements. 

Provided the main object is never lost sight of, these 
agencies are valuable helps to spiritual work. They 
brighten the everyday life of the young ; they show that 
religion is the best friend of mental and social progress ; 
and, above all, they augment the personal influence of 
the teacher by demonstrating his loving sympathy with 

ing are thus means, while education is the end. These definitions 
should be well pondered and clearly understood. 



12 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

his pupils ; and strengthen the ties which bind them 
to him and to the school and Church. 

The faithful Sunday school labourer, then, must seek, 
not only to speak, but also to live, the truth. Let him 
be sure of this, that his tempers, habits, and genera] 
conduct, so far as they come within the observation of 
his scholars — whose scrutiny will be close, impartial, and 
generally accurate — will form an eloquent commentary, 
or a melancholy satire, on his sabbath instructions. It 
was not by accident that St. Paul bade his young disciple 
i4 take heed," first, to himself. "His words," says the 
proverb, "will thunder whose life lightens," but where 
there is no living light, the words, however wise or appro- 
priate, will be but as the mimic thunders of a stage. 

REFERENCES TO THE FOREGOING TOPICS. 

" The Sunday School Teacher's Manual." By W. H. Groser. $1.25. 
(Chaps, i., vii.) 

"Normal Class Manual." By Drs. Hovey and Gregory. Part IV., 
Sections 1 and 3. 

" Preparing to Teach." Pages 327-337. 

Hart's " Sunday School Idea." Chap. I. 

" The Sunday School and its Methods." By J. A. JLyons. Part II. 

" The Church School and its Officers." By J. H. Vincent, D.D. 75c. 

" Helpful Hints for Sunday School Teachers." By J. H. Vincent, 
D.D. 6c. 



( 13 ) 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER 

Some years since, the writer's attention was called to 
a little book of which, he only remembers the title, "An 
Idea of a Christian." It is to be feared that there are 
many Christians whose conceptions of the religion which 
they profess are vague and shadowy indeed. And it is 
not less probable that there are many well-meaning 
persons, actually engaged in the work, whose " idea of 
a Sunday school teacher " is lamentably inadequate and 
ill denned. It is hoped that a thoughtful perusal of the 
previous chapter may serve to prepare the way for clearer 
and more accurate views of the teacher's qualifications, 
and to convince the reader, at starting, that here is no 
mere ephemeral expedient for remedying a temporary 
dislocation in the social fabric, but a spiritual ministry, 
whose foundations centre in the inspired Word of God. 

Personal Piety. — We would enter upon this very 
serious theme with a friendly but earnest personal inquiry 
— Have you, into whose hands these pages have fallen, 
been called to this great work, the religious instruction and 
training of the young ? And since God calls only His 
own servants to do His work, there lies behind the above 
question a second one — Are you a true disciple of Christ f 
Are you yourself a learner in that Divine school into 
which you propose to lead others ? We do not dare to 



14 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

affirm that God's truth, spoken by the undecided, or even 
by the irreligious, must needs fail of its effect, but we 
may safely assert that such is not the Divine method ; 
and we can with equal confidence declare that a teacher 
who is not a disciple excludes himself and his efforts from 
the prospect and the promise of a blessing. If, therefore, 
we chance to be addressing any who are conscious that 
as yet they are not possessors of the first qualification 
for Sunday school teaching, we beseech them that, before 
proceeding a single step further, they — for their scholars' 
sakes, for their co-workers' sakes, for their own sakes — 
"be reconciled to God," by simple hearty faith in the 
redeeming work of His dear Son. 

For what possible success can be anticipated in this 
or any other spiritual enterprise — and we hope that the 
preceding chapter has sufficiently defined the true nature 
of Sunday school teaching — without the indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost ? If God was pleased to make inspiration 
a qualification for the chief artificers in the construction 
of His ancient tabernacle — if He " filled " Bezaleel and 
Aholiab " with the Spirit of God ... to work in gold, 
and silver, and brass," in " cutting of stones " and 
"carving of wood," can any inferior endowment be 
adequate for those who toil to build a living temple, in 
which the Divine presence shall abide and be manifested 
with a constancy which Israel's sanctuary never knew ? # 
We are helpless in the midst of our sabbath classes unless 
He " who spake by the prophets " speak also by us. It 
is not enough that, to quote a somewhat misleading 
phrase, we expect a "blessing to follow " our instructions ; 
the Giver of that blessing must also abide in us as the 
Shekinah of our hearts, illuminating our understandings, 
quickening our perceptions of His Word, and clothing us 
with the true prophetic power. A Christian teacher must 
be not as a catoptric mirror, reflecting the Divine beams only 
* Cf. Exocl. xxxv. 30-33 ; 1 Cor. iii. 9, 10 ; Eph. ii. 20-22. 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 15 

from the surface, but as a dioptric lens, itself permeated 
by the light which it transmits to others. 

Adaptation. — But not all who are disciples are called 
to teach, much less to teach the young. Diversities of gifts 
prevail in religious equally as in secular agencies ; and 
it is well to remember that there are both natural and 
acquired " gifts " of teaching. Let our readers allow us 
to bring them to the test of some of these qualifications. 
We will mention three, that appear to be of primary 
importance, aud will do so in the form of familiar 
questions : — 

1. Are you in sympathy with the young f Some pious 
people like children very well — " in their place ; " but it 
is implied that the children's " place " is 'at a respectable 
distance. This is the feeling which consigns Sunday 
scholars to hot, stuffy, unwholesome galleries in churches 
and chapels ; where participation in Divine worship is 
impossible, bat where an intense dislike to the sanctuary 
and its services is vigorously fostered. It is not every 
Christian man or woman who feels "at home" in the 
society of young people. There is a sort of instinctive 
incompatibility which keeps them apart when left to their 
own free will. And there are many who seem quite 
unable to touch any sympathetic chord in young minds 
and hearts : they would be glad if fchey could do so, but 
do not know how. 

Such persons, however pious and benevolent, are as 
clearly unfit for the charge of a Sunday school class 
as a deaf man to be a professor of music, or a dumb man 
a teacher of elocution. Their vocation may, perhaps, be 
found beside the sick-bed, or at the mothers' meeting ; 
distributing pure literature, or writing in defence of the 
faith; but it is obviously a mistake, and an injury to all 
concerned, to allot them a place in a Sunday school. If 
any of our readers are conscious of this initial defect, it 
will be safer and more candid to avow it at once, and 



16 THE YOU NO TEACHER. 

withdraw from a sphere which they cannot but feel was 
not designed for them. 

2. Are you in sympathy with teaching f In other words, 
Are you fond of telling to others whatever you yourself 
have learned ? There is such a tiling as " a passion for 
communicating ; " and probably it exists in all our best 
teachers, whatever their special departments of effort, as a 
distinct characteristic. If you do not share this tendency 
at all, if communicating is rather a drudgery than a 
delight, there are doubtless paths of Christian usefulness 
open to you, but they do not lead, we venture with some 
confidence to affirm, to the Sunday school class. Unless 
" Tell me the old, old story," as a request from youthful 
lips, awakens in you a glad and eager response, you can 
hardly conclude that the Master has called you to " feed 
His lambs " with heavenly pasturage. 

3. Are you in sympathy with the Sunday school enter- 
prise ? It is not enough that you approve of it, or even 
admire it as an institution ; most persons do that. Do you 
love it sincerely ? Have you thorough faith in it, as a 
Divine agency for the diffusion of Christ's gospel among 
the youth of all nations and ranks and positions, and 
their nurture in the inspired " words of faith and of 
good doctrine " ? Do you recognize on it the stamp 
of God's approval, through a hundred years and more of 
practical trial ? For your own sake, for the children's 
sake, and for the sake of your fellow-labourers, forbear to 
put your hand to a work to which you cannot yield your 
fullest sympathy of mind and heart. We can neither 
know, nor perform, as we ought, any work that we do not 
love. 

The lack of any or all of the above-named requisites 
should, in the writer's judgment, be regarded as an effec- 
tual bar to undertaking the superintendence of a class of 
Sunday scholars, or indeed to engaging in any school 
work whatever. Assuming, however, that our readers' 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 17 

sympathies are fully enlisted in the direction we have 
indicated, we may now proceed to consider other qualifi- 
cations scarcely less important. These may be conve- 
niently divided into the necessary and the desirable, pre- 
mising that these terms are to be understood in their 
ordinary sense. Some teachers have succeeded in the 
absence of one or more of these qualifications which we 
deem "necessary;" while, again, any of those which we 
class as " desirable " may become, in certain circumstances, 
all but indispensable to efficiency. 

Necessary Qualifications. 

Of these the Moral stand first in value and import- 
ance, and among them we place at the head — 

Patience, which is the cardinal virtue of the educator, 
whatever his special department. — Christian patience is 
the fruit of Self-control, which can best be learned in 
the school of Christ. The subjection of the tempers and 
passions to the Divine law is a task which every disciple 
must set before him, though many a struggle be needed 
to insure success. It is doubly important in an instructor 
of youth, since every phase of his character is closely 
watched by his pupils, and unconsciously moulds their 
own. The teacher who fiercely boxes the ears of an im- 
pertinent scholar, or excitedly engages in a hand-to-hand 
struggle with a refractory one, can hardly be surprised if 
he neutralizes, by the looks and gestures of a few moments, 
the wise and painstaking instructions of weeks and months. 
The youthful heart is a " city " which can only be " taken " 
by him who has learned to " rule his spirit." 

Patience, one of the fruits, as we have said, of this 
grace of Self-control, is both passive and active, nor can it 
be asserted that either is the more needful. 

Passive Patience is love enduring. Not mere moral 
inertia, but the charity " that beareth all things," express- 
ing itself in meekness and forbearance amidst the ofttimes 

c 



18 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

trying faults and failings of a class of children or young 
people. Inattention, indifference, perhaps obstinacy, sul- 
lenness, ingratitude, instability, and the long train of 
juvenile sins and shortcomings — these should be, and, 
happily, often are, endured with calmness and loving 
patience by those who teach for Christ. And the thought 
of His compassionate forbearance with His wayward and 
faithless disciples supplies the highest motive to the 
cultivation of this highest of educational virtues. 

Active Patience is love toiling. We call it Persever- 
ance, but the apostle defined it more forcibly as " patient 
continuance in well-doing." It is not mere blind tenacity, 
but trustful plodding on in a path which the convictions 
pronounce to be the path of duty. It is the transference 
to moral and spiritual spheres of that which inspired 
Palissy and Brindley and Stephenson in the ways of 
material progress. 

" O'er wayward childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule, 
And sun thee in the light of happy faces, 
Love, Hope, and Patience — these must be thy graces, 
And in thy own heart let them first keep school." 

Of this " Love " and " Patience " we have spoken ; " Hope " 
should be manifested in Cheerfulness of disposition and 
manner, which is all-important in intercourse with the 
young. By the law of association, a sombre Christian is 
judged to be so because of his piety ; while " heaviness " 
in teaching Bible lessons is mentally attached by the child 
to the contents of the Book ; and the feelings of repulsion 
so awakened in the sunny minds of youth are more easily 
produced than eradicated. 

Prayerfulness. — By this we mean, not the 'practice so 
much as the spirit and attitude of prayer — that depend ance 
on Divine help which stimulates, instead of superseding, 
human effort, and is indeed the strongest incentive to 
patient industry. If prayer be 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 19 

"The Christian's vital breath, 
The Christian's native air," 

it is not less the teacher's talisman — the secret of his 
strength and his success. His private studies, his inward 
meditations, bis class instructions, his correspondence and 
personal intercourse with his scholars, — all these, as well 
as his individual piety, need to be permeated and sustained 
by that devout recognition of the Divine element in all 
spiritual work which finds its fit outcome in the exercise 
of prayer ; — 

" I can only spread my sail, 
Thou, Thou must breathe th' auspicious gale!" 

Turning now to the Intellect ual Qualifications de- 
manded for the efficient discharge of the teacher's duty, it 
will be convenient to divide these also into Passive and 
Active, or Knowledge and Ability. 

As to the former, they may be comprised under two 
familiar heads, A Fair English Education, and A 
Competent Knowledge of Holy Scripture. 

Education. — An acquaintance with those departments 
of everyday learning which are included in the phrase " A 
fair English education," may be regarded by some as far 
from indispensable in " spiritual work " like that of the 
Sunday school. They will point to many illiterate yet 
successful teachers, and affirm that in spiritual things 
" human learning " is rather a hindrance than a help. 

Such reasoning is fallacious, in more directions than 
one. Of course we do not presume to assert that there 
can be no success without this limited amount of secular 
knowledge for which we plead. We have read of Saunderson, 
the professor of mathematics, who taught optical science 
at Cambridge though he had been totally blind from 
infancy ; and Beethoven, one of the first of modern musi- 
cians, was afflicted with severe deafness. Yet surely one 



20 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

may include eyesight and hearing as " necessary qualifica- 
tions " for teaching optics and music respectively ? 

Nor are we demanding that Sunday school instructors 
should be "learned" in any sense which can fairly be 
imposed upon that term — in any sense even remotely ap- 
proaching that in which the great pupil of Gamaliel depre- 
cated reliance on " the wisdom of this world." All we 
demand is so much of scholastic knowledge as shall place 
the teacher at least on a par with his pupils. National 
education, defective though it is and must be, is yet slowly 
but surely raising the intellectual level, and the literary 
and scientific attainments (humble as both undoubtedly 
are), of the youth of this country ; and it is undesirable in 
the last degree that those who impart religious knowledge 
should exhibit ignorance of the elementary subjects of 
public school tuition. A Sunday school teacher, whose 
blunders in his facts or his grammar excite the mirth of 
his scholars, may forfeit neither their affection nor their 
esteem, but can scarcely fail to be lowered in their respect. 
They may love him as truly, regarded as a friend ; they 
will certainly look up to him with somewhat less of con- 
fidence, regarded as an instructor and a guide. 

We are not now referring, of course, to an occasional 
error, whether in statements of fact or modes of expression, 
for to such all are liable ; but to that habitual illiteracy 
which is a constant advertisement of infirmity, and at the 
present day must prove an ever-increasing hindrance in 
Sunday school work. Obstacles are numerous enough in 
the path of the competent ; it is surely a pity to add to 
them by neglecting the most ordinary degree of mental 
culture. That which is every year becoming a more serious 
disability even in the young mechanic or artisan, can 
hardly fail to operate yet more unfavourably upon any one 
who essays to be a teacher. 

But the fallacy we are trying to combat may be still 
further exposed. It is not correct to say that Sunday 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 21 

school teaching is a " spiritual " work, in the sense of being 
exclusively a process of spirit acting on spirit, or even 
one of imparting truth of a purely immaterial nature. 
It is spirit acting through human language — human 
grammar ; and it is spiritual truth embodied in a Booh 
of human history, dealing with the various outward objects 
of human thought. More than this, the Text-book of the 
Sunday school is a " Divine Library," which connects 
itself with all history, science, and literature, and to the 
right understanding of which all these contribute. Hence 
it results that secular knowledge, so far from being a 
useless appendage to religious teaching, may be rendered 
a most valuable auxiliary thereto. 

We would therefore plead earnestly with every young 
friend who seeks assistance from these pages, to spare no 
pains to attain this reasonable qualification for teaching a 
sabbath class with comfort and self-respect. Helps are 
so cheap and abundant, that the most exceptional circum- 
stances can hardly be urged as an excuse for illiteracy. 
How early disadvantages may and have been conquered 
by resolute purpose and unflinching industry, the annals 
of modern biography afford ample and striking proofs. 
Knowledge is the ammunition of the mind, not its bag- 
gage ; it affords the materials of power, though power- 
less in itself, till, as Bacon says, it is " referred to use 
and action." Power in a teacher means influence over 
his pupils ; and there is scarcely a department of secular 
knowledge by means of which a skilful teacher may not 
augment his influence for good. 

Probably it is quite unnecessary, but we add one 
cautionary remark. It is no detriment to a teacher's 
position or influence that he should be ignorant of certain 
specific matters which one or other of his scholars may 
know. A city teacher will not lose the respect of a boy 
or girl from the country because he is unversed in agri- 
culture, or is acquainted with the names of but few garden 



22 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

or field flowers. It is only in those common subjects which 
form a part of an ordinary education, that ignorance or 
blundering imperils an ins tractor's influence and repu- 
tation ; and it is against these defects that the foregoing 
arguments have been directed. 

Bible Learning. — But if a "fair English education" 
may be urged as an essential requisite for a modern Sun- 
day school teacher, with tenfold force may it be demanded 
that he or she shall have attained something more than a 
" fair " knowledge of Holy Script are. 

We have just remarked that Sunday school teaching 
is Bible teaching — the explanation and exposition of a 
Book, which, though one in Authorship and purpose, is 
manifold in its subject matter as well as in age, style, and 
composition, so that it is not only a Volume, but a Litera- 
ture in itself. 

It would appear almost an impertinence to argue that 
the duty of setting forth the contents of such a Book, 
week after week, demands a close and comprehensive 
acquaintance with those contents, and not that mere 
superficial knowledge which seems to satisfy the majority 
of Christian people. And, indeed, no such arguments 
would find a place in these pages, were there not reason 
to fear that the Bible is treated by not a few of its expo- 
sitors, both in the Sunday school class and elsewhere, as 
no other text-book, literary or scientific, is treated by 
professor, lecturer, or schoolmaster. And the reason for 
the difference is, unfortunately, far from creditable to the 
religious teacher. In secular instruction such imperfect 
and fragmentary knowledge would mean loss of credit, 
position, and income ; in Sunday school teaching it means 
only loss of teaching power, loss of personal influence, 
and, too often, loss of pupils ! In the one case, the failure 
is pecuniary and temporal, and it is strenuously avoided ; 
in the other, the failure is moral and spiritual : ought it 
to be willingly endured, when like industry and earnestness 
would transform it into success ? 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 23 

We entreat, then, of every intending Sunday school 
worker, not to court the bitterness of failure and dis- 
appointment by an ignorance and shallowness in relation 
to the Bible, which, amidst the multitudinous helps at 
once cheap and accurate provided for his use, can hardly 
be otherwise than inexcusable. St. Augustine was wont 
to remark of the Scripture, that one might have " first- 
draughts, second draughts, and third draughts " of the 
water of life. It may be too much to expect of so busy 
a class as the teachers in modern Sunday schools, that 
they will be able to drink so deeply at that Divine Foun- 
tain as to know what the " third draughts " really are. 
Yet surely they ought not to be satisfied with the mere 
<; first draughts " which many, perhaps most Christians, 
are content with, — that and no more than is embodied in 
the lines — 

" I came to Jesus, and I drank 
Of that life-giving stream ; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 
And now I live in Him." 

Piety not Sufficient. — You cannot, indeed, lead others 
to a Christ to whom you have not yourself come, and to 
whom you have not paid your vows of allegiance. But 
you need to go beyond this if you aspire to be a Bible 
teacher. You must know more of that Book than suffices 
to enable you to find pardon at the foot of the cross. Be 
not deceived by a fallacy which is often uttered with the 
best intentions. Your duty is not simply "to tell little 
children that Christ loves them," or simply to assure them 
that He died in their stead. Had this been the Divine 
method a very small tract would have sufficed to be the 
Bible of mankind. But " the foolishness of God is wiser 
than men " — even than many good Christian men. A 
collection of books, ancient, oriental, varied, elaborate, 
unique, constitute the Volume of revealed truth, and 
a large portion of this Volume has to be explained, 



24 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

expounded, and enforced in the Sunday school class. To 
revert to Augustine's metaphor, the teacher should at 
least know something by experience of " second draughts " 
of the Bible spring. 

A Common Difficulty. — Perhaps the reader is dis- 
posed to reply, " I admit all that is thus urged in reference 
to Scripture study. I am conscious of my own defi- 
ciencies, and would gladly continue a learner for the 
present, rather than become a teacher. But our school 
is in need of workers, and pressure is being put upon me, 
so that I feel constrained to render what little assistance 
I can." 

Suggestion to Intending Teachers. — We admit the 
force of a plea which is only too familiar to our ears. 
Nor can we take upon ourselves to decide a question of 
personal duty between the soul and God, between the 
Divine Master and the human servant. We only know 
that insufficient Bible knowledge in the teacher is destruc- 
tive of comfort and efficiency, and a formidable obstacle 
to success. And we honestly believe that three or six 
months devoted to the acquisition of such knowledge, 
before entering upon actual work, would be a vast gain, in 
all respects, to thousands of Christian young men and 
women, whom worried and perplexed superintendents are 
only too ready to thrust into vacant places in the teachers' 
ranks. Such a prayerful and studious, though brief, 
retirement, rightly used, would prove to them what the 
Midianite pasture-lands were to Moses, the Judsean wilder- 
ness to the Baptist, and the solitudes of Arabia to St. 
Paul — the training-school for grand and noble efforts, not 
the less grand or noble because the world, and perhaps 
the Church, would hear little about them. 

Claims of Sunday School Lessons. — It must also 
be remembered that, when once entered upon, the charge 
of a Sunday school class brings with it, among other claims 
on time, thought, and effort, the necessity for preparing 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 25 

one, and often two, lessons every week, upon specific 
portions of Scripture. Now, while it is true that these 
portions, if thoroughly studied, will supply, in the course 
of time, much information of the kind we are commending, 
yet they will not secure competent Biblical knowledge for 
a teacher. For these lessons, though prepared in the form 
of series, and rightly so, must, from the nature of the case, 
be selective rather than consecutive. There are portions 
of the New Testament, and much larger portions of the 
Old, which are quite unsuited for any but adult scholars in 
Sunday schools ; and when, as in the " International " and 
other " uniform " systems of lessons, the same topic is 
taught simultaneously throughout the school (except 
perhaps in the senior department) it is manifest that such 
a plan, with its many and obvious advantages, involves the 
sacrifice of consecutive lesson-subjects. 

Mode of Bible Study. — Having regard, therefore, to 
the scanty leisure of the average teacher, we might suggest, 
as a practicable method of attaining this most important 
object, that, after making himself acquainted with the 
general scope and connection of the inspired writings, and 
the history of the formation of the Canon, systematic study 
might be pursued along the lines indicated by the current 
Sunday lessons, with a view of gaining a thorough ac- 
quaintance with the particular book from which those 
lessons have been selected, instead of merely " skipping " 
from one to another of the latter. 

To offer specific hints on this branch of study does 
not fall within our present limits ; but some information 
as to the nature and accessibility of the helps now pro- 
vided for those who desire an ampler grasp of the Holy 
Scriptures in their several parts and connections, will be 
given in a subsequent chapter of this little handbook. 

But, by whatever means — whether by special self- 
preparation for a given period, or by a diligent economy of 
spare minutes ; by early rising in the morning, or by the 



26 THE YOUNG TEACHER, 

consecration of a quiet and solitary hour at night ; or even 
by the sacrifice of lawful amusements and indulgences ; 
let a vigorous, earnest, and prayerful effort be made by 
every young Christian teacher to acquire such a knowledge 
of his Text-book as shall enable him without timidity or 
embarrassment to " speak "of God's testimonies- — if not, 
like David, "before kings," yet before critics as keen and 
observant as their elders, and perhaps less charitable in 
regard to errors and deficiencies, 

A New Movement. — There has lately been inaugu- 
rated in Russia a movement which is exciting considerable 
attention. A number of Christian people have agreed 
together to devote an hour daily to the perusal of the 
Bible; and the moral and spiritual results already ob- 
servable are becoming matters of public comment and 
interest. One would hope that in Protestant England such 
a practice would be too widespread to awaken special 
notice ; yet there is too much reason for thinking that the 
example of these " Stundists," as they are called, is by no 
means generally followed, even among recognized disciples 
of Him who is the central theme of revealed truth. Might 
we not, then, inaugurate a timely adoption of the Stun- 
dist principle, in the more congenial soil of the British 
Sunday school ? 

Why should not our intending teachers, and our actual 
teachers — the young Christians for whom the present 
normal series of handbooks is designed, as well as those 
who have already begun to instruct others — unite in one 
vast band of " Half-hour Students " ? The following 
might be the basis of association : A promise to devote 
one half-hour daily to Bible study ; and four half-hours 
per week, in addition, to the reading of other books adapted 
to assist in the work of Sunday school teaching. The 
benefits which a fellowship so hallowed and so practical 
would confer alike on teachers and taught could hardly be 
estimated, while it would seem only the fitting sequel to 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 27 

the " International Bible Reading Union " for scholars, 
lately organized by the Sunday School Union, and now 
(Jan., 1884) numbering above forty thousand children 
and young people among its members. 

We trust, however, that we have said enough to 
induce our readers to put forth earnest and persevering 
efforts for the attainment of so fundamental a condition of 
clear, efficient, and unembarrassed teaching. 

Active Qualifications. — Thus much may be comprised 
under the head of passive intellectual qualifications — the 
knowledge which must be possessed before it can be put 
in exercise. We come now to a very brief mention of 
certain Active Qualifications, which seem to the writer 
to be of primary importance. 

It may be convenient to enumerate thtsc under three 
heads : — Power to Acquire ; Power to Communi- 
cate; Power to Control. 

Power to Acquire. 

How to Learn. — The actual knowledge possessed by 
a teacher at any one period is of less importance than what 
may be termed his intellectual attitude in relation to know- 
ledge in general. In other words, he may forego a reputa- 
tion for being learned, if only he is constantly learning. 
The well-known remark of Dr. Arnold — that he studied, 
not because he would otherwise be unable to teach his pupils, 
but because he " preferred that they should come to a 
running stream instead of a stagnant pool " — may well be 
laid to heart by every instructor of the young. It is not 
desirable that he should " seek and intermeddle with all 
wisdom ; M but it is essential to the freshness and impres- 
siveness of his class-teaching that he should keep all the 
avenues of knowledge continually open for the ingress of 
new facts and ideas. There is abundant evidence to show 
that this mental attitude has often led to the most remark- 
able acquisitions of learning and to the most useful inven- 



28 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

tions and discoveries. We have only to turn to Dr. 
Smiles's volumes on " Self-Help " to find striking ex- 
amples of the manner in which, combined with persever- 
ance, it has overcome the most formidable obstacles, and 
raised the obscure and untaught to fame and fortune. 

Like Hunter, the great surgeon and anatomist, a 
Sunday school teacher should go about in the world with 
the question perpetually in his mind, if not on bis lips, 
"What can I learn, now, and here, which will tend to 
assist me in my chosen sphere of action ? " Not only the 
printed book and periodical, but the grander book of 
creation, and the endless phases of that human life of 
which the newspaper is a partial reflection, will supply 
continual accessions of helpful knowledge — either directly 
adding to his present information on specific topics, or 
indirectly supplying illustrations of moral and religious 
truths. How such information may be conveniently stored 
for Sunday school purposes, we shall attempt to show 
hereafter. 

Reflection. — In these educational days it is perhaps 
scarcely necessary to remind the reader that all knowledge 
requires to be made our own by reflection. A fact or idea 
is not truly ours when we have merely seen or heard it, or 
even when we can remember it. It must be built into the 
mind — laid side by side, as it were, with kindred truths, as 
a block of stone is fitted into its appointed place in a 
material building; not "shot," like rubbish, upon an 
existing heap, without order or unity. This " reflection " 
does not imply prolonged meditation in the retirement of 
a " study," or in lengthened and solitary walks through 
lane and field, or beside old ocean's pebbly marge ; else it 
would hardly be recommended here. We merely wish to 
enforce the importance of looking at facts and circum- 
stances as they present themselves — " handling " them, so 
to speak, with invisible fingers, or, to vary the figure, 
tasting them with our inward palate. Thus we form a 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 29 

judgment of their truth and value, and allot them a 
place, if we deem them worthy of preservation, in our 
mental storehouse. 

Association of Ideas. — That such "reflection" is in- 
dispensable may be inferred from the familiar truth, that, 
of the vast multitude of things which we see and hear, 
only a very small proportion are securely retained in the 
mind; the majority are at least so far lost to us as to be 
beyond the power of voluntary recall.* One reason for 
the difference may be found in what is termed the prin- 
ciple of Association. Our thoughts, and our feelings also, 
exist in the mind, not as isolated experiences, but linked 
together in what is expressively, though familiarly, termed 
11 chains " of ideas and emotions. We have only to watch 
the current of these mental movements to perceive that, 
without any effort of the will, endless series of thoughts 
and of feelings pass in succession within us, each leading 
forth the next bv some invisible connection. Nor are these 
two chains separate and distinct, but interwoven together; 
thought calling up feeling, and feeling thought. These 
phenomena are too familiar to need illustration here, and 
it is equally needless to remind the reader how such 
associations contribute to our inward pleasure and pain. 
Some commonplace object or casual circumstance, noticed 
or remembered, will stir our whole nature to its inmost 
depths : — 

"You wonder that my tears should flow, 

In listening to that simple strain ; 
That those unskilful sounds should fill 

My soul with joy and pain. 
How can you tell what thoughts it stirs 

Within my heart again ? 



* It is needful to make this qualification, because there is reason 
to think that no impression is ever wholly effaced from memory. It is 
quite certain, however, that no effort of our own can recall such 
impressions, except to a very limited extent. 



30 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

" You marvel that I turn away 

From all those flowers so fair and bright, 

And gaze at this poor hevb, till tears 
Arise and dim my sight. 

You cannot tell how every leaf 
Breathes of a past delight." 

This principle of association, while it is invaluable, 
as we shall hereafter see, to the teacher of others, is equally 
so to those who are seeking to acquire knowledge for them- 
selves. By reflecting on what we hear, or see, or read, we 
are enabled to connect each item of our information with 
kindred facts already known, so welding the new links to 
the old, and not merely placing them side by side. 

Power to Communicate. 

Ability to transfer our knowledge is quite distinct from 
the power to acquire it. A prodigy of learning may be 
utterly incapable as a teacher. The most accomplished 
scholars are often excelled by far inferior men as preachers, 
professors, and lecturers. In some minds knowledge appears 
to lie so deep, that the bringing of it to the surface is 
a tedious and difficult process. This may be due to a 
want of readiness in the memory — facts being but slowly 
recalled, so imposing a heavy tax on the listener's patience. 
But more commonly it arises either from (1) an inability 
to marshal truths in a manner adapted to the comprehension 
of a learner ; or (2) an inability to translate them into 
language sufficiently simple for the purpose. 

Danger in Religious Talk. — Either of these defects 
is, of course, a serious obstacle to a Sunday school teacher, 
yet all may be overcome by practice. Probably few of 
those into whose hands this work will fall suffer from 
excess of learning ; while most of those who have enjoyed 
the privileges of a home where children have formed part 
of the household have acquired, almost unconsciously, the 
art of using simple language in the affairs of daily life. 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 31 

Yet it should be borne in mind that many who can speak 
with " sweet simplicity " on common subjects, drift away 
into a ponderous theological dialect as soon as they are 
called upon to talk on Bible themes. We have known 
youths and young men whose ordinary conversation was 
rational and intelligible, not to say commonplace, but who 
appeared to be transformed into divinity professors as 
soon as they sat down in the presence of their unfortunate 
classes. 

Simple Language ! — The above-named tendency 
should be firmly resisted, since two things are certain, viz. 
that not even inspired truths can affect the heart until 
they have been apprehended by the understanding ; and 
that grandeur of style in a teacher of the young is an 
utter " weariness of the flesh " to his pupils. Simplicity 
of language is, therefore, an absolutely indispensable 
condition of efficient instruction in the Sunday school — a 
simplicity proportioned, of course, to the ages and attain- 
ments of the scholars. If you do not know how to talk 
simply to young folks on Scripture subjects, you must 
set yourself to learn. Obtain some good " Lectures " or 
" Addresses to Children," such as Dr. Todd's or Dr. Richard 
Newton's, or Rev. James Stalker's, "The New Song,' 1 or the 
44 Peep of Day " series; and from these teach yourself the art 
of speaking on grand themes in simple words. 

Order and Disorder of Ideas. — The other defect 
we have mentioned is the most common of all — a want of 
orderly arrangement of truths, so that they are not intelli- 
gently grasped by the learner. Every one knows how 
differently a skilful and an unskilful advocate will put the 
same case : the one marshalling his facts and arguments 
so as to carry conviction to the mind ; the other handling 
the same facts, yet leaving his hearers unconvinced. It 
matters not only what you say, but in ivhat order you say 
it. A well-arranged speech, or sermon, or Sunday school 
lesson flies like a well-aimed arrow to its mark ; while one 



32 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

promiscuously spoken may be compared to an ill-balanced 
kite, which, after careering wildly in mid-air, pitches 
ignominiously to the ground. Lord Bacon's well-known 
axiom, that " writing makes an exact man," may be sug- 
gestive here. Want of that mental discipline which true 
education imparts, is one cause why young teachers are 
weak in power of communicating. Their lessons have no 
proper beginning, middle, or end, because they have not 
learned to think, in an orderly manner, on a definite sub- 
ject. Such will need resolute effort and some persevering 
industry to conquer this defect; but success is quite 
attainable, and will abundantly reward exertion. 

There are many ways of promoting orderly thinking. 
Young men may join a debating society (if one which they 
can conscientiously approve be available), and accustom 
themselves to watch and to analyze the arguments of the 
best speakers. Or they may with great advantage read 
carefully such a book as " Whately's Logic," or Archbishop 
Thomson's u Outlines of the Laws of Thought." But, to 
come to helps more generally accessible, a careful listen- 
ing to Sermons of average ability and excellence, taking 
written notes of the divisions and arrangement (not in a 
carping supercilious temper, but with a desire to invigorate 
the mind, while gaining spiritual benefits), will soon pro- 
duce a more orderly condition of the mental furniture. 
Above all, every Sunday lesson should be sketched in 
writing, as the best means of showing where improvement 
is called for, and how it may be attained. Examples of 
such notes will be given in a later section. Enough, it is 
hoped, has been advanced, to indicate that an acquaintance 
with " the art of teaching " is no unimportant or even 
subordinate qualification for the work of a Sunday school 
class. Happily, any young Christian of ordinary intelli- 
gence and earnest purpose may expect to attain it. 



CHJEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCFIOOL TEACHER. 33 

Power to Control. 

Class Rule. — We have spoken of self-control as among 
the indispensable qualifications of a religious teacher, and 
a condition of being able to govern others. For govern- 
ment is as needful as instruction in a Sunday school class ; 
which is a little community in itself, and should be a little 
empire ; having one absolute ruler, whose sway should be 
based on a combination of firmness and love The former 
is necessary, that there be no anarchy in the class, with 
its inevitable disturbance of educational work, to say 
nothing of religious influence ; the latter is equally impor- 
tant, that those who render obedience may do so without a 
sense of constraint. The state of things described in the 
Book of Judges, where " every man did that which was 
right in his own eyes, ,, is not more inimical to national 
progress than a like absence of authority is to the well- 
being of a class of children. An insubordinate class is 
a continual source of irritation to the teacher, of discom- 
fort to the scholars, and of annoyance to the school officers 
as well as the members of surrounding classes. More- 
over, spiritual impression is impossible where inattention 
and disorder prevail ; and a teacher's words fall with 
little effect where his authority is disputed. There, as in 
a family, it is a mistaken kindness to allow unlimited 
freedom of action to young people, but a salutary policy 
to train them to obey those who are set over them. And 
this is especially needful at the present time, when a ten- 
dency to resist lawful restraint is lamentably characteristic 
of our rising youth. 

The power to control and govern others is due, primarily, 
to Strength of Will ; and such strength exists in different 
persons in widely different degrees. Those who possess 
it in more than average vigour become leaders of others 
in their several spheres of action ; as we may observe in 
the family or the school, as well as in more public posi- 

D 



34 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

tions ; while those in whom it is comparatively weak, are 
content to follow and obey. Of course the will-force may 
be directed to good or to evil ends. 

The will, like other faculties, may be strengthened by 
effort and exercise. When we speak of " forming a reso- 
lution," or "coming to a determination," we are indicating 
a mode of strengthening this inward power. Clear and 
definite convictions exert a like influence : if we are con- 
vinced that a course is right or wise, we gain thereby a 
measure of strength to resolve on corresponding action. 
So also, if we feel deeply in reference to such a course, the 
will is stimulated to form purposes accordingly. 

Let every young teacher, therefore, be assured that 
the power to control a class is indispeu sable to comfort, 
efficiency, and usefulness ; that it may be attained, when 
it is not already possessed, and improved when it is ; and, 
consequently, that no effort should be spared until it is 
secured. 

Desirable Qualifications. 

Thus far our attention has been confined to those 
qualifications of a Sunday school teacher which appear to 
the writer to occupy the first rank — to be indispensable, 
more or less entirely, to efficiency and success. We have 
now to mention a few others, which, though not abso- 
lutely necessary, may be fitly commended as highly desir- 
able, and conducive, in a greater or less degree, to the 
" thorough furnishing "of a Christian man or woman for 
this "good work." 

Following the previous order, we name first such as 
may be classed as Tassive qualifications. 

1. General Knowledge. — It is desirable, then, that a 
Sunday school teacher should possess a fair amount of 
General Knowledge, so as to be above the level of his or 
her pupils in all ordinary matters. Two advantages will 
result from such superiority : The scholars will be en- 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 35 

couraged to look up to their sabbath instructor as one able 
to help them on other points of information besides that 
which may be called " official " knowledge, and so will feel 
the greater respect and confidence. The teacher's instruc- 
tion, on the other hand, will be marked by a wider range, 
and an increased variety of fact and illustration, if his 
reading and observation have been considerable. It is a 
further advantage, though a subsidiary one, if such general 
knowledge can be made manifest on the Sunday school 
platform, in the popular lecture, the paper read at the 
Mutual Improvement Society, or perhaps the week-even- 
ing class for the study of some branch of science or lite- 
rature. And while we are far from recommending our 
young fellow- workers to be readers of anything and every- 
thing which comes in their way, we would confidently 
affirm that there is scarcely any department of knowledge 
which may not, somehow and somewhere, be made available 
in the service of the Sunday school. 

2. Biblical Knowledge. — It is desirable that a teacher 
should give particular attention to those topics which are 
most closely related to Holy Scripture, While all know- 
ledge may be of some use, these are of especial value, 
because they throw light upon the Bible itself. We refer 
to such subjects as the Geography of Palestine and the 
surrounding countries ; their Natural Features ; their Pro- 
ducts, animal and vegetable, and the Manners and Customs 
of their inhabitants. Critics of Sunday school work — and 
there are a sufficient number, whose confidence in asser- 
tion is generally proportioned to their practical ignorance 
— have rounded off many a paragraph by reminding the 
teacher that " the geography of Palestine has no direct 
relation to the betterment of character ; and the costume 
of an Oriental, or even of a high priest, is in itself no 
more religious than the costume of a Scotch Highlander. " 
Our own experience and observation lead us to think that 
the teachers who substitute such matters for direct reli- 



36 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

gious instruction are to be found in the imaginations of 
newspaper writers much more frequently than within the 
four walls of a Sunday school. The writer just quoted 
admits that these side-lights " may add not a little to the 
vividness of the teaching," and the concession is amply 
sufficient to justify all that is recommended for a teacher's 
adoption. For surely it is no small matter to impart 
" vividness " to that which we desire to engrave on the 
memory and conscience, from which ordinary impressions 
are so soon and so easily effaced ? But there is a deeper 
reason than this, which is readily overlooked, viz how 
much of spiritual truth is embodied m metaphors and 
parables, for the right understanding of which the very 
knowledge which is depreciated as all but useless, is abso- 
lutely necessary ! How is the child or the adult to appre- 
ciate the twenty-third psalm, or the Sermon on the Mount, 
or the trinity of parables in Luke xv., without some ac- 
quaintance with Eastern lands and Eastern life ? And 
where, if not in the Sunday class, should that knowledge 
be imparted ? In teachers of more advanced classes it 
is also needed both to meet the difficulties of youthful 
thinkers, and to rebut those quibbles which a certain class 
of sceptics are never weary of repeating, not to speak of 
the indirect evidence which Eastern lands and modern 
Oriental life afford to the truthfulness and accuracy of 
the sacred writers. There is no excuse nowadays for a 
Sunday school teacher to imitate a certain Oxford tutor 
quoted in Rev. T. Mozley's " Reminiscences, " and who, 
''lecturing" on the second chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
enlightened his pupils with the comment, that from the 
phrase " Draw out now" it would appear that the Jews 
used " spigots " / " Spigots " in an Eastern water- jar 
would certainly be a curiosity ! 

3. Personal Intercourse. — It is desirable, most desir- 
able, that a Sunday school teacher should be acquainted 
with the home life of the members of his class. The mere 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 37 

contact with boys or girls for an hour or two on the Lord's 
day will scarcely yield, even to an acute and observant 
teacher, anything like a full or just comprehension of their 
individual characters Yet, without these, his sabbath 
bow is indeed " drawn at a venture. " Much has been said 
'n commendation of a " house-going minister;" but the 
importance and the benefits of personal intercourse with 
those whom we instruct are just as real in the case of the 
teacher of youth as in that of the teacher of adults. We 
may talk, and talk wisely and practically, to a congregation 
or to a class, as a whole, without knowing more of them 
than this — that they are partakers of ordinary human ex- 
periences and dispositions ; but we can never consciously 
strike home to the individual heart with a 8< Thou art the 
man," unless we know something of the inner thoughts 
and feelings of the hearer. It is this which imparts such 
unspeakable value to the visitation of scholars at their 
homes — a duty and a privilege which nothing but absolute 
inability should permit us to neglect. A chance remark, 
or even a silent look, in the course of a ten minutes' un- 
constrained chat, has often supplied a key to unlock the 
dormant interest, or the concealed desires and aspirations, 
of a young nature wholly unappreciated, perhaps entirely 
misunderstood, before. 

A recent writer in the American Sunday School Times 
has most truly observed — " A teacher's study of his every 
scholar is quite as important as his study of thejesson; 
and it ought, in fact, to precede it ; for until you know 
whom you are to teach, how can you judge what is to be 
taught? It has been said that ' a sick soul needs not a 
lecture on medicine, but a prescription.' If you are to 
prescribe for a moral patient, you need to get down along- 
side of that patient, and to feel his pulse, and to look at 
his tongue, in order to know what is his precise condition, 
and what are his present requirements. With the highest 
attainable medical skill, and with a well-supplied apothe- 



38 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

cary's shop at his service, no physician could ever ad- 
minister a prescription intelligently unless he knew who 
was his patient, and what was the nature and stage of his 
disorder. Nor is a teacher more potent in his sphere than 
a physician in his. The best teacher in the world is not 
prepared to teach a Sunday school class until he knows 
the members of that class. He must know whom he is to 
cause to know a truth, before he can fairly begin to cause 
that truth to be known." 

Personal Culture. — Turning now to qualities of a 
more Active kind, we may perhaps condense a few remain- 
ing suggestions on the qualifications to be desired in a 
Sunday school teacher, under the head of Personal Culture. 

A brief reference was made at the close of the preced- 
ing chapter to the influence of the life and character of 
the Christian teacher upon those whom he is called to 
instruct, and in the earlier pages of the present chapter we 
have spoken of some of the chief elements included in such 
character. It has also been urged that the information 
which the teacher of the young possesses should be con- 
stantly increasing ; that he should " grow in knowledge," 
especially such as pertains closely to his chosen work, and 
cultivate the powers of his intellectu?! nature. The like 
counsel is now affectionately offered in relation to the 
moral and religious nature. He must " grow in grace " as 
well as in Jcnoivledge, become better as well as wiser, as 
days and years roll on, if he would become a true educator 
of his youthful charge. For the end of all education is 
character, and the end of our department of education is 
moral and spiritual character. Now, we educate more 
powerfully by what we are than by what we say ; and we 
are most mighty when our life supplies a commentary on 
our words. 

Character and Manners. — But the question is well 
worth asking, What do the members of an average Sunday 
school class know of the moral and religious life, the 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 39 

" walk and conversation/' as the old and expressive phrase 
has it, of their teachei ? They rarely see him in his 
home, and then only nnder somewhat restricted condi- 
tions, while his business habits and conduct are, in nearly 
every case, quite beyond their limit of observation. The 
like rule applies, in an almost equal degree, to the other 
sex. How, then, can these boys and girls be consciously 
or unconsciously affected by the lives and characters of 
those whom they so imperfectly know ? How, but through 
the outward manners and bearing, which, to the keen and 
seldom-mistaken eye of youth, are the true index of the 
spirit and temper within ? The ancient proverb, " Man- 
ners makyth man," was based on no narrow philosophy, 
and it is a pity that so many religious people, in and out 
of the Sunday school, neglect the cultivation of these 
external means of commending the faith which they 
profess. We are not speaking of mere superficial polish — 
the " deportment " which used to be taught in boarding- 
schools — a thin veneer of shallow politeness ; but that 
outward bearing, that mode of speaking and acting, which 
is the fitting expression of kindred thoughts and feelings 
within. It is a miserable blunder, as well as a serious 
fault, to hide a noble and kindly spirit by a harsh, rude, 
or coarse mannerism. True Christian courtesy and polite- 
ness are the exponents of Christ-like love and sympathy. 
We are bound, as indeed we profess, to be imitators of 
Him whom the old English poet quaintly, but not irreve- 
rently, styles — 

" The first true Gentleman that ever breathed ; " 

and all our self-culture ought to be undertaken with Him 
as our perfect Pattern. Then let us also assiduously cul- 
tivate the expression of that likeness in so far as we attain 
to it. Let the inward grace be shown in outward grace- 
fulness. Every Sunday school teacher who is a true 
Christian, ought to be also a true gentleman or gentle- 



40 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

woman, reflecting the " gentleness of Christ," first in the 
spirit and then in the manners; and this gentleness, 
courtesy, and refinement will be a mighty power for good 
over the minds and hearts of the young. 

Sincerity and Purity. — So also the teacher must 
cultivate purity, reverence, truthfulness, and all the "fruits 
of the Spirit; " bat let the expression of these in word and 
conduct be also a matter of cultivation. Let the " words 
of the lips," and even the outward aspects of the bodily 
frame, correspond with the character within. Let the 
teacher willingly sacrifice for Christ any habit or indul- 
gence which will tend to make him less agreeable to his 
youthful charge, and therefore diminish his influence on 
them. Let even such external matters as dress be regu- 
lated by Christian principle ; and let breath redolent of 
alcohol or clothes perfumed with tobacco have no place 
in the Sunday class. 

A half-friendly writer has remarked, " There are many 
[Sunday] schools where the teachers and scholars vie 
with each other in dress, vanity, and flirtation. ... A 
professor of religion may be a coxcomb or a coquette." 
No doubt a "professor" may; but a sincere follower of 

the Redeemer ? Not often, we think ; certainly not 

often in the ranks of an English Sunday school. Yet 
there is some ground for the criticism in the silly rivalry 
of " gay clothing " (mostly in very bad taste) which here 
and there finds an illustration among Sunday school 
teachers. Let such censure provoke our readers each to 
say, with the old Greek, " I will live so that none shall 
believe it." 

Our Standard. — We have thus, briefly and very 
imperfectly, reviewed some of those qualifications which 
appear to the writer more or less necessary and important 
for the efficient discharge of the duties of a Sunday school 
teacher. It would, of course, have been perfectly relevant 
to our subject to have enumerated as " necessary " the 



CHIEF QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER, 41 

whole round of religious and moral excellences, and as 
" desirable " the entire circle of intellectual accomplish- 
ments. For teaching is the highest of all professions, and 
religious teaching is its highest form. But such a cata- 
logue would have only served to discourage the majority 
of young men and women for whose use this little work 
is designed ; whereas our object is to afford both en- 
couragement and help to beginners in Christian life and 
Christian work. 

Our Example. — If, however, we have still seemed to 
set up a standard too lofty for attainment, we can only 
plead our Divine Master's authority. For our individual 
imitation as disciples He has set before us a pattern 
absolutely perfect, saying, " Follow Me ; n and for our 
work in His name among the young we can but call 
to mind His own commission, " Lovest thou Me more 
than these ? Feed My lambs." A low spiritual life will 
never lift us to His side as " good shepherds " and co- 
labourers with Him. If we would save the children, we 
must seek to be something more than to be merely saved 
or "converted " ourselves. 

We could also plead that no worthy results can ever 
be obtained without earnest work and patient plodding. 
Nay, it involves what is expressly termed drudgery, and 
drudgery involves sacrifice. But " part of the very nobility 
of the devotion of the true workman to his work consists 
in the fact that a man is not daunted by finding that 
drudgery must be done." And if we can find abundant 
instances of such nobility among those who work from 
lower and self-interested motives, should the spirit of 
sacrifice be wanting where " the love of Christ con- 
straineth " ? 

It is, indeed, in the highest degree probable that most, 
if not all, of the qualifications above enumerated are already 
possessed, in some degree, by each reader of these pages. 
The great need, therefore, is progress, the noble dis- 



42 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

satisfaction with present attainments ;• and the desire to 
go on unto perfection. But however that may be, let this 
hope nerve our arms and cheer our hearts — he who works 
for God works with God. His Spirit is with us in the 
humblest and feeblest effort which we put forth for His 
cause and kingdom. We look within and around us, and 
ask, almost despairingly, " Who is sufficient for these 
things ? " We look above, and with grateful courage 
respond, " Our sufficiency is of God ! " 

" Mighty Spirit, dwell with me! 
I myself would mighty be ; 
Mighty, so as to prevail 
Where, unaided, mau must fail ; 
Ever with a mighty hope 
Pressing on and bearing up." 



REFERENCES. 

" Manual," chaps, ii., iii. 

Hart's " Sunday School Idea," chap. iv. 

" The Teacher Taught," chap. viii. 

Todd's " Sabbath School Teacher," chap. iii. 

Louisa Davids. " The Sunday School." Part III. 



( 43 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION, AND THEIR RELATION TO BIBLE 

TEACHING. 

The young readers who have given us their attention thus 
far will have learned what are the main objects of Sunday 
school instruction, what instrumentalities are to be 
employed, and what knowledge and personal qualifications 
are needed by those who engage in this Christian enter- 
prise. They will now be prepared to consider, in this and 
the succeeding chapter, those general Principles upon 
which all right teaching must be based, and the Methods 
which naturally arise out of them ; and then to apply both 
principles and methods to the special work of religious 
teaching in a Sunday school class. 

"Principles" and " Methods." — To prevent, how- 
ever, the possibility of mis understanding the few technical 
terms which it is convenient to use, let us illustrate what is 
meant by " principles " and " methods " of instruction,* and 
show, at the same time, why we are inviting attention to so 
" scholastic " a topic in an elementary handbook for young 
Bible-teachers. 

An Illustration. — Three persons are suffering from 
an attack of the same disorder. The first calls on a 
physician, to whom he details his symptoms, and who, after 

* For definitions of " instruction " and " education " the reader is 
again referred to the footnote on page 10. 



44 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

due examination of the case, writes out a prescription and 
gives it to his patient. The second goes to a neighbour- 
ing chemist and asks for a " bottle of stuff " for his malady. 
The chemist consults his book, and finding that certain 
drugs are often efficacious in the removal of like 
symptoms, makes up a mixture, and hands it to the appli- 
cant. The third " does not wish to be bothered with 
doctors," and remembering that he has somewhere a box 
of pills from which he derived benefit on a former occasion, 
searches them out and takes a dose as before. All three 
patients recover, and it turns out that the medicines were 
essentially the same, though somewhat differently com- 
pounded. Thus the results were identical, yet how 
different the steps which led to them ! The physician 
understood the nature of the disease, the properties of the 
drugs, their mode of action on the affected organs, and 
their adaptation to restore the system to a healthy con- 
dition. He therefore intelligently selected means suited 
to given ends. In the second case, the apothecary knew 
little of the disease or even of the kinds of action of the 
drugs ; but he had learned that the latter were often ad- 
ministered under such circumstances, and therefore con- 
cluded that they might be safely given again. In the 
third case, the patient simply remembered that he had had 
a similar attack before, and judged that what answered his 
purpose once might be expected to do so again ; but he 
knew nothing of the disease, the remedy, or the relation of 
the one to the other. 

The Illustration applied. — In not a few Sunday 
schools, teachers may be found corresponding to each of 
the above class of " doctors." Here and there (would that 
their number were multiplied a hundredfold !) are those 
who have studied the foundation principles of teaching — 
the relation of truth to the mind — as the physician studies 
the relation of medicine to the body ; and the ways in 
which truth may be most skilfully applied, just as drugs 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 45 

are combined in due measure, strength, and frequency. 
Hence they not only can teach, but can assign a reason for 
teaching in this or that manner under given conditions. 
Others have learned that it is a good plan to use questions, 
to illustrate Bible truth, to recapitulate a lesson, and so 
forth ; but they do not know why such plans are " good." 
They find that such a " prescription " is recommended 
by the educational " faculty," and so they adopt it. While 
others, again (we fear there are many), teach in this or that 
method simply because they have " found it answer pretty 
well " themselves, or because Mr. A. or Miss B. does the 
same with apparent success. 

It is needless to point out the moral of the foregoing 
illustration. Children are taught, and, what is far better, 
they are brought to the Divine Healer, by those who know 
nothing of the principles and methods of teaching, though 
they unconsciously use and apply them ; but surely we 
cannot doubt into whose hands the young "patient" can 
be most safely committed. 

Principles of Instruction. — Principles, then, are to 
the mind what the " laws of health " are to the body. If 
we act in accordance with them, whether we know it or 
not, we are likely to succeed in our object ; if we act con- 
trary to them we are on the road to failure. They never 
alter, because they are founded on the constitution of 
things. The laws of health are the same for a modern 
doctor of medicine as they were for Galen or Hippocrates ; 
and the principles of teaching on which Socrates, and 
a Greater than Socrates, carried on their conversations 
and discourses with their disciples, hold good for every 
Christian worker in every modern Sunday school. 

Methods. — Methods, however, are liable to variation. 
They are modes of applying principles — sets of rules which 
arise out of them, and hence differ under different circum- 
stances. One physician, from a study of the laws of health, 
will prescribe for a patient a course of tepid baths ; 



46 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

another will administer, in a precisely similar case, daily 
doses of quinine. So in teaching, — one will adopt a lec- 
turing style, another will question ; one will adopt simul- 
taneous reading; another will make large use of objects 
and pictures, and so on. This liberty is of great con- 
venience, and adds to the ease and comfort of the work of 
instruction ; nor, if the principles be well understood, is the 
free use of different methods in danger of being abused. 

Following the order, though not adopting the precise 
language of the author's larger work,* eight Principles 
of Teaching may now be briefly explained and illustrated 
They will be found easy to remember and as easy to com- 
prehend. In fact, there is nothing unfamiliar about them 
but the names. 

First Principle — Co-operation. 

By this we mean that teacher and scholar must work 
together. Unless the learner's mind is active, there can be 
no teaching, however much there may be of telling or 
talking. If a scholar's mind is in a purely passive con- 
dition, he may see and hear, and even answer questions, 
"after a fashion," but he is acquiring little, and will 
remember little of what is being said. There is no 
more common error among young teachers than the sup- 
position that what they have given out must of necessity 
have been taken in, by their scholars ; whereas, the ablest 
instructor knows well that a considerable part of every 
discourse — be it lecture, sermon, Bible lesson, or individual 
conversation — fails to find a lodgment in the memory of 
the hearers. Our object should be to lead our pupils along 
the paths of sacred knowledge, so that they may, with our 
assistance, pluck the flowers and fruits of Bible truth 
for themselves. There is far too much of mere telling 

* " The Sunday School Teacher's Manual." 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 47 

in Sunday school classes, and too little interchange of 
thought. 

This co-operation is the more needful, because, unless 
the body or the mind is really fatigued, children and 
young people seldom choose to be in a passive condition. 
True, a too hearty dinner, or an ill-ventilated schoolroom, 
will often induce drowsiness, both in scholar and teacher ; 
but, as a rule, the latter is more frequently annoyed by 
misdirected mental activity, than by none at all. The 
pupils' thoughts are active enough, and their tongues also ; 
but, unfortunately, it is towards anything but the lesson of 
the day ; except, perhaps, that dull, heavy-eyed boy or girl 
in the corner, whose countenance is scarcely ever lit up by 
interest, or rippled over by a wave of emotion ! 

Do you ask, " How T is this passiveness to be overcome, 
and the activity of young minds guided in a desired direc- 
tion ? " The answer is to be found in a simple and oft- 
quoted rule : Give each scholar something to do. Question 
vigorously. Strive to prompt conversation about the lesson. 
Give them the larger share of the talking. To read a verse, 
to hunt up a fact, to find a reference — even to relate some 
recent occurrence in the family or neighbourhood, — any- 
thing which can be turned to account (as most things may 
by a little tact and ingenuity), will engage the attention, and 
counteract misapplied energy on the part of the children. 

Second Principle — Sympathy. 

We use this word for want of a better, but do not em- 
ploy it in that restricted sense in which we are wont to 

sing— 

" He sympathizes with our grief, 
And to the sufferer sends relief; " 

but in that " oneness " of thought and feeling on a given 
subject which is always so agreeable and interesting to 



48 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

those who share it. Take a familiar example Two per- 
sons, strangers to each other, meet by accident and fall into 
conversation. A few remarks are interchanged concern- 
ing the weather and other indifferent subjects ; presently 
a chance remark discloses the fact that they spent their 
childhood in the same country town, attended the same 
school, have pursued the snme branch of scientific research, 
or are engaged in the same philanthropic enterprise. In- 
stantly all is changed ; they have ceased to be strangers, 
conversation no longer flags, and they part with cordial 
good will, and perhaps mutual invitations for a future 
meeting. Why is this ? Simply because they have found 
a common ground of thought and feeling, and therefore a 
common interest. This is the sympathy we are writing of. 
Examples. — In the recently published memoir of the 
writer's lamented friend, the late Sir Charles Reed, it is 
truly remarked, as one cause of his singular acceptableness 
and influence as a public speaker, that " he seemed instinc- 
tively to find common ground with his audience, and seized 
on the humour of the moment in a way that quickly put 
him on the best of terms with them." For an opposite 
example, we may quote from another recent memoir, that 
of the late pious and accomplished Archdeacon Hare. His 
work as rector of a Sussex village was felt, it is said, " to 
be the least successful portion of his life's task," because, 
though " he loved his people, and they loved him, yet they 
never got thoroughly to know and understand each other. 
His thoughts and theirs ran in different grooves. He 
would sit by them, almost weeping in his sympathy, and 
yet found it hard to say the words they wanted, to talk to 
them about their ailments, to meet their religious difficul- 
ties. " Many earnest friends of the yomg have this true 
sympathy of feeling, but lack the mental Sympathy on 
which we are insisting. Yet it is essential to success in 
every department of religious teaching, and in every Bible 
lesson that is given. In order to secure interest in the 



PKINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 49 

subject of instruction, there must be something in common 
to serve as a starting-point. This sympathy ought to be 
twofold. If the scholars are personally attached to their 
teacher there will be sympathy of feeling between them 
and him, and this will dispose them to sympathize with the 
subject-matter of his instructions ; but it will not suffice of 
itself. They need an interest to be created in the par- 
ticular lesson. Even pious scholars, who of course have 
a prior sympathy with religious truth, will require a 
stimulus to attract them to at least some of the subjects 
which occur from time to time in our lesson series ; while 
mere children — not to speak of scholars who are careless 
and godless — must be drawn to almost all sacred themes 
by skilful adoption of this principle of sympathy. 

There are very few Scripture subjects occurring in the 
course of a year's lessons, drawn from the " International " 
or any other carefully prepared series, which do not fur- 
nish points of interest from which teacher and scholar 
may, as it were, start together in each Sabbath's conver- 
sations. These lessons are chiefly of a personal or historical 
nature, and so human and many-sided are Bible narratives 
that it needs but a little thoughtful scrutiny to find some 
incident, or place, or character which may serve as a meet- 
ing-point of interest for the class. 



Third Principle — Gradation. 

" Step by step " we all acquire knowledge, and hence 
we must teach on the same principle. We must bear in 
mind the poet's lines in relation to the intellectual stores 
amassed by the " great," and apply it in seeking to add to 
the stores of the " little "— 

" The mighty pyramids of stone, 

That, wedgelike, cleave the desert airs, 
When clearer seen and better known, 
Are but gigantic flights of stairs. 

E 



50 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

"' The heights by great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight ; 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 

We have spoken of the common ground of " sympathy " 
from which teacher and learner should start in every 
lesson, whether secular or religious. It is equally impor- 
tant that they should proceed step by step together; and 
here, as in actual walking or climbing, the teacher should 
make his steps conform to those of his pupil, taking short 
and easy stages, " leading on softly," like the shepherd 
patriarch, " according as the children be able to endure." 

There is, perhaps, no law which intelligent and well- 
informed instructors more frequently infringe, quite un- 
consciously to themselves, than this making sure that each 
scholar is accompanying them as they proceed. Their own 
lengthy strides deceive them, as the old makers of school- 
forms were wont to construct them with legs tall enough 
for the use of adults. We have heard of a professor who, 
in the midst of some figuring which he was carrying on 
with the help of a blackboard, turned round to one of the 
students and inquired, pointedly, " Are you following me, 

Mr. ? " " Well, yes, sir," dryly responded the pupil, 

" hut it's a very long ivay off." Let those who have to lead 
younger minds endeavour to prevent them from falling so 
far into the rear ! 

Thoroughness.— It is far wiser and better to teach 
half the lesson than to shim the whole of it ; to carry your 
pupils through a passage of six or eight verses, or a single 
Bible incident, and make sure they understand it, than to 
read a chapter and leave the readers' minds in a state of 
chaos as to its contents. The annual examinations of Sun- 
day scholars offer only too frequent proofs of the need to 
adopt the maxim, " Slow and sure," in imparting Bible 
knowledge to the young. The wildest ideas exist in the 
minds of boys and girls on such topics, for instance, as 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 51 

the position, size, and general features of Palestine, the 
nationalities of its inhabitants in Old and New Testament 
times, and the languages in which the Bible was written. 
Young teachers should resolutely probe their pupils on 
these matters ; digging down, so to speak, till they reach 
the solid ground of actual knowledge, through whatever 
accumulations of ignorance and misconception they have 
to pierce. It is best to get at the real facts of the case, 
however astonishing or disheartening they may appear; for 
only thus can we reach a sure foundation on which to build. 

Fourth Principle — Association. 

Link each new truth ivith what is already known. The 
mind holds its knowledge, not in isolated fragments, but 
linked together by the Law of Association, which has been 
explained in a former page. If we would have new facts 
retained we must fasten them on securely to others which 
are already in the memory. Hence the wisdom of adopt- 
ing courses of Bible lessons, connected together in order 
of time or by some other obvious bond of union. It is 
scarcely prudent for young teachers to select their own 
lessons ; the temptation is so great to move in a narrow 
round of favourite topics — Moses in the Bulrushes, the Call 
of Samuel, David and Goliath, the parables of the Lost 
Sheep and Prodigal Son, and a few others, which every one 
thinks he can teach " easily.'' Lesson subjects should be 
connected either chronologically, doctrinally, or by some 
slighter but not less obvious principle of conjunction, and 
this will be found the case with most printed series. Not 
only each lesson of a course, but each part of a lesson, 
should be united by association ; so that the remembrance 
of one section may suggest the others. There should be a 
few clear and natural divisions, or " heads ; " and though it 
is not always necessary to announce these, sermon- wise, to 
the hearers, yet they should be thoroughly grasped by the 
teacher's own mind, and form one harmonious whole. If 



52 THE YOUNG TEACHER, 

the several parts of a lesson are " all sixes and sevenj " to 
the instructor, what possible chance can there be of 
implanting them in a logical and orderly manner in the 
understandings of the pupils ? Yet instruction, to he 
instruction, must consist in " the orderly placing of 
knowledge " in the scholar's mind. 

It is obvious that this principle and the foregoing are 
very intimately connected together; they are both just as 
closely united to the one which is next to be mentioned. 

Fifth Principle — Analogy. 

Teach the unknown by comparing it with that which is 
known. This is only recommending, for class-teaching, a 
plan which we are all accustomed to adopt in ordinary 
conversation, whether with children or adults. If we desire 
to give some idea of an absent stranger, or unfamiliar 
locality, or singular object, we instinctively say that he, or 
it, is " like " some one or something already known to our 
hearer. All that is now urged is simply to apply this 
principle to Bible teaching. It is necessary, for there is no 
other method of explaining " things unseen and eternal ; " 
and it is judicious, for the mind always finds a pleasure in 
recognizing resemblances, especially when " all the world 
is new " to the learner. The attractiveness of figures of 
speech, parables, and allegories is due to this principle ; 
and of course the use of illustrations, in speaking or writing, 
whether in order to elucidate, or to enliven, the subject- 
matter, rests on the same basis. And the very terms in 
which we describe moral and spiritual, as well as mental 
phenomena, are derived from outward things which have 
some resemblance to these inward existences. Let the 
reader turn to the Book of the Revelation, chap, xxi., and 
note the manner in which the apostle attempts to depict 
the glories of the heavenly state, and it will be seen how 
dependent even an inspired writer is upon comparisons for 
the materials of his description. 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION, 53 

Sixth Principle — Repetition. 

Repeat! Recapitulate! Review! Tell the same truths 
again and again. Truth, especially moral and spiritual 
truth, is not laid hold of by the mind, much less incor- 
porated with the character or exemplified in the life, by 
being once heard ; and the leading truths of the gospel 
need to be reiterated again and again. 

In proportion to the youthfulness of the learner is repe- 
tition needful, and even pleasurable. 

But there is a limit to this principle. We may weary 
by repetition. "When, and why ? When we repeat the 
same facts or doctrines in the same form, so that they 
suggest no new ideas, and thus have lost all the charm of 
novelty. But if the theme be one which appeals to the 
sympathies of the pupil, you may safely reproduce it again 
and again, up to the point where the mind grows fatigued 
and weary ; then all effort to listen or learn is distasteful, 
and no judicious teacher will continue his instructions. 

Reviewing. — It is a good plan in Sunday school 
teaching to recapitulate the previous divisions of each 
lesson, as the exercise proceeds ; and to recall the last 
Sunday's lessons before commencing those of the day. 
The principles of Gradation and Association suggest this 
course ; and it is desirable, if only to show how much (or 
how little !) has been thoroughly learned, understood, and 
retained. 

The companion principle to Repetition is next to be 
mentioned : — 

Seventh Principle — Variety. 

Give sufficient variety in matter and style. The safest 
way to avoid prosiness and wearisonieness in Bible in- 
struction is to study variety. Clothe the same truths in 
different garbs, and add new truths to the old ones. Don't 
relate the same anecdotes over and over again — they will 



54 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

be recognized as old, and despised accordingly. If you 
repeat a lesson, study it afresh, and arrange it differently. 
Don't use your old notes if your pupils are to be the 
same ; and if they are not, it will be better for your own 
mind and heart to search, again in the divine " treasury " 
for " things new " as well as " old." 

This is an additional argument for paying attention 
to the methods of presenting Scripture truth ; because, 
without deviating from sound principles, we may vary our 
methods of teaching to almost any extent. To use a 
familiar comparison, we may build any style of house upon 
the same foundation, and according to the same laws of 
architecture. And if a scholar knows that there will be 
this variety, and not a constant repetition of the same 
matter in the same form, it will afford an element of 
attraction which may often outweigh inducements to be 
an absentee. 

We have but one other principle of instruction to 
mention, but it is all-important : — 

Eighth Principle — Adaptation. 

The teaching must be adapted, in quantity and quality, 
to each of the pupils. Easy to recommend — true beyond 
all contradiction ; but the question is, how shall it be 
secured ? Of course there are two principal requisites — 
to know the scholars, individually as well as collectively ; 
and to be able to present different aspects of sound truth, 
suited to their several requirements. A few r remarks and 
suggestions may be offered on each of these points. 

First, what is it to know our scholars? 

Child Character. — There are, of course, certain 
characteristics which they have in common with all young 
people.* Their knowledge is but very limited; their 

* It will, of course, be understood that we are not now speaking of 
adult classes in Sunday schools. 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 55 

minds are more or less active ; both, body and mind are 
restless, and need frequent change; they are quick to 
receive impressions, bnt these are apt to be transient, 
and need repeating; they are curious, and struck with 
novelties ; they are lively, and like liveliness in those who 
teach them ; they like pictures, both visible and verbal, 
the former preferred, especially in early childhood ; they 
need control ; their moral and spiritual convictions are 
genuine but not deep, and the conscience needs to be 
educated and enlightened. 

Such are a few of the general characteristics of an 
ordinary Sunday school class, and it is of no small im- 
portance that they should be understood and remembered 
by a teacher 

Mental Stages of Growth. — There are also stages of 
growth through which the child passes, as the mental and 
moral nature develops, from infancy up to youth. With- 
out entering upon a systematic account of the process, 
we may note one or two leading features, referring our 
readers to more advanced manuals for a fuller account 
of this interesting department of a teacher's studies. 

Age of Perception. — Those who have the care of 
an infant class are accustomed to use pictures or black- 
board figures in the instruction of the little ones. The 
reason for this is to be found in the fact that, in early 
childhood, the eye is a more prominent channel of know- 
ledge than the ear ; things rather than words, are the 
instruments of instruction. This is termed the Age of 
Perception. At this period of life, it is needful to appeal 
to the feelings rather than to the reason. The teacher 
expresses certain feelings, and the children catch the 
influence by sympathy. Hence, " the Age of Perception " 
is also called " the Age of Sympathy." 

Age of Imagination. — A year or two later, and 
the Imagination becomes active, the child likes to " fancy " 
and " make believe ; " and he dearly loves a fairy tale. 



56 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

He is, therefore, less dependent on visible pictures and 
objects for gaining knowledge ; and a wise teacher will 
therefore make less use of them. At the same stage of 
progress, the Desire of Praise becomes a prominent motive 
of action, and must be employed by the teacher as an 
incentive to right action. 

Ages of Reason and Reflection. — Later still, the 
Age of Reason and the Age of Reflection are reached. The 
mind becomes stronger, and the judgment more active. 
The boy or girl thinks, reasons, argues, reflects ; and we 
learn, by manifest signs of mental vigour, that childhood 
is for ever past. 

Similarly, Conscience becomes a director and a guide, 
while it continues to approve or condemn ; the lad or lass 
shows signs of independence and responsibility ; and pays 
less deference to the opinions of others. This is the 
stage at which the tie which binds the scholar to the 
Sunday school is too often strained and broken — all too 
soon for his moral and spiritual well-being; but the subject 
does not demand discussion here. 

Individual Character. — Leaving, however, these 
collective peculiarities, important as they undoubtedly 
are, we hasten to indicate others not less vital in the work 
of education. 

A teacher needs to be acquainted with his own scholars 
individually. However skilfully the school may have been 
divided by the superintendent and secretary, there will 
be differences in every class, both intellectual and moral, 
besides those which are distinctively religious. A teacher, 
therefore, needs to know each scholar's capacity and 
attainments, natural temper and disposition, tastes and 
habits, and spiritual condition ; and these can only be 
ascertained by personal communication. An American 
writer quotes a telling anecdote to enforce this point. He 
says : "Nor is it only in the measure of his knowledge, 
that a scholar is to be studied, and to be known by his 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 57 

teacher. It is in his personal tastes and peculiarities, in 
his feelings and desires, in his methods of thonght and 
his modes of action, in his characteristics and tendencies, 
and in the nature of his home and week-day surroundings, 
that a scholar must be known before he can be taught 
intelligently. It is related of Professor Orfila, the great 
French chemist, that when he was giving evidence in a 
court of justice, as to the relative power of minute doses 
of a particular poison, one of the lawyers in the case 
inquired of him derisively, ' Could you tell us, Professor, 
the precise dose of this poison which a fly could take 
safely?' 'I think I could/ was the cautious answer; 
* but I should need to know something about the particular 
fly under treatment. I should want to know his size, his 
age, bis state of health, his habits of life, whether he was 
married or single, and what had been his surroundings 
in life so far. All these things bear on the size of the 
dose to be administered in any case.' Surely a scholar 
deserves as much study, and as wise and as cautious 
treatment, as a fly. But not every teacher is as wise or 
as cautious as Professor Orfila." 

Home visitation is undoubtedly the best possible means 
of gaining this acquaintance ; and next to visiting is 
letter-writing ; indeed, a letter will sometimes elicit what, 
through natural shyness, would not have been disclosed 
in conversation. Something may be learned from the 
testimony of parents and other relatives ; and vigilant 
observation of a scholar's manner and conduct during the 
hours of teaching will supply indications of the bent of 
the mind and character ; but nothing is so helpful as 
personal intercourse. It will supply not only materials 
and hints for direct instruction, but guidance as to the 
control and treatment of the class ; and beyond all, it will 
be found, if faithfully pursued, to yield continued encour- 
agements and incentives to faithful and persevering effort. 
Let the " wise steward," then, become so intimately 



58 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

acquainted with the members of his little " household," 
that he may, indeed, be qualified, to give to each of them 
"his portion in due season." 

Our Model in Teaching.— We have already remarked 
that the principles of instruction are invariable, and that 
all true teaching is carried on in accordance with them. 
It should excite no surprise, therefore, if we find, in the 
recorded discourses of the Great Teacher, continual examples 
of the use of these principles. Doubtless few, if any, of 
our Lord's " Bible lessons " have come down to us in a 
complete form; and of these, the majority are incidental 
"talks," rather than systematic addresses, though of 
inimitable beauty and adaptation. Still, the underlying 
principles may be easily traced by a careful reader. 

Examples from Christ's Teaching. — Let us take, 
for instance, the grand yet tender utterances contained 
in the earlier portion of the tenth chapter of St. John's 
Gospel. The previous chapter explains the occasion and 
circumstances. A blind man who had been healed by the 
Saviour, and had openly intimated his conviction that 
his Healer's mission was divine, had been promptly ex- 
communicated by the Jewish Church authorities. The 
latter had also asserted that they only were the successors 
of Moses, and the doorkeepers of the divine fold, while 
as for this unauthorized teacher, no one knew whence 
he had sprung, and he could therefore be only an alien 
and an impostor (ix. 28, 29.) With admirable dignity 
and calm severity, our Lord retorts upon Scribe and 
Pharisee the charge they had brought against Him. He 
proclaims Himself the only " door " of the sheepfold, 
while they who neglect or despise Him are but " thieves 
and robbers," whom the true sheep would not regard or 
obey. He is also the Good Shepherd, faithful in feeding 
and defending His flock, while the hireling shepherds 
neglected and forsook them — a true picture of the relations 
of the Jewish teachers to the common people, whom they 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 59 

abandoned to ignorance and then despised for their 
lack of knowledge (vii. 49; Matt, xxiii. 13, etc.). With 
such wondrous tact and pointed n ess, jet with an entire 
absence of the revilings of his adversaries, did the Great 
Teacher exhibit the vast gulf between Him and them. 
Here was Adaptation. 

The season was winter (vers. 22, 23), and the flocks, 
no longer allowed to sleep on the hillsides, had been 
everywhere gathered into folds, as those devout Jews who 
had come up from their country homes to keep the 
Dedication festival at Jerusalem would have noticed, over 
and over again. Our Lord began His discourse by finding 
a common ground of thought and feeling ; every Jew 
could understand, and feel interested in the objects and 
details of pastoral life. Here was Sympathy. 

The interest which His hearers could not but feel in 
the outward form of the discourse, would be increased by 
the knowledge that, in accordance with the Saviour's own 
practice, as also with Eastern modes of thought and 
expression, there was a hidden meaning beneath His 
figures of speech. We may marvel that what appears so 
plain to us, should have been veiled to them ; yet we are 
assured (ver. 6) that they understood not the inner 
significance of what w r as outwardly so simple and familiar. 
Hence, curiosity would be assured, and curiosity, " the 
parent of attention," invokes that wakefulness of mind in 
the pupil which tends to secure Co-operation. 

A happy combination of Repetition with Variety 
is noticeable in this as in the other discourses of the 
Great Teacher. The same leading truths are reiterated, 
yet not so as to weary, because the form is varied, as a 
study of the passage will show. 

The Gradation of the teaching is equally observable 
on attentive perusal of the verses. The parable begins 
with the simplest truths about the way into the heavenly 
fold, and the mutual confidence and affection between the 



60 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Shepherd and the sheep. Then it rises to the gift of 
salvation, freedom, and spiritual support, with a life that 
broadens and deepens as it progresses (vers. 9, 10) ; then 
higher still, to the voluntary atoning sacrifice (that hardest 
of lessons to the Saviour's disciples) the mutual know- 
ledge of God the Father and God the Son, and the bringing 
in of the Gentile sheep of other folds (vers. 11-18). 

We do not know what had been the previous lessons 
given by the Great Teacher to the same hearers, unless 
John viii. 12-59, represent the latest. If so, we have in 
the parable before us a reassertion, under new emblems, of 
the claim to Messiahship so fiercely denied and denounced 
in the foregoing passage. The truths here are therefore 
linked on by Association to the truths there (compare 
viii. 12, 32, 36, with x. 9, 10 ; viii. 18, 26, 29, 55, with 
x. 15, 17, 18; viii. 47, with x. 4, 14, 27; viii. 51, with x. 
10, 28 ; viii. 28, with x. 11, 17, 18). 

In the conversation which immediately follows the 
parable (vers. 22-30), the new statements made by Christ 
are closely and manifestly linked on to what He had 
previously taught on both occasions above quoted (see 
viii. 28; ix. 4, etc.). Here was Association. 

The principle of Analogy — teaching the unknown by 
comparison with the known — is one of the chief character- 
istics of our Lord's instructions ; and His similes, allusions, 
metaphors, and parables exhibit this principle, combined 
with variety, in a matchless degree. If the hearers failed 
to understand Him, the obstacle was moral and spiritual, 
not intellectual, and still less was it due to any imper- 
fection in the mode of presenting the doctrines. Every 
person and thing employed here as emblems of religious 
truths were simple and familiar to those who heard. 

We need not multiply references ; enough, it is hoped, 
has been quoted to show how fruitful in educational 
lessons — lessons even in the science of teaching — the 
recorded sayings of Him who was emphatically the 



PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTION. 61 

Divine Word may become, to thoughtful and earnest 
readers. He is the only Model Teacher : and it will be 
our highest wisdom to sit at His feet, that we may learn 
from Him, not only the " words " which are "spirit and 
life," but the way to implant them in the minds and 
hearts of others. 

REFERENCES. 

" Manual." Chaps. IV.-IX. 

Trumbull's " Teaching and Teachers." Part I., Chaps. I., II., III. 



62 THE YOUNG TEACHER, 



CHAPTER IV. 

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION: THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 

No young teacher, we hope, will infer from the preceding 
chapter that the Principles there set forth are intended 
or adapted to cramp or fetter those who expound the 
written Word of God to children and young persons. 
They impose some limits, it is true, such " limits " as the 
parapet of a bridge or the railings erected along the edge 
of a cliff impose on pedestrians — limits of warning and 
protection. If you do not teach in accordance with these 
laws, you are on the road to failure instead of success ; 
as that physician would be, who should disregard the 
laws of chemistry or the laws of health. 

Flexibility of Methods. — But though the Principles 
of Teaching are inflexible, the Methods which are founded 
upon them afford, as previously stated, full scope for 
freedom of action. Truth, moral truth especially, may 
be presented in a variety of modes, all in accordance with 
sound principles. When we attempt to classify these 
modes of presentation we find ourselves among what are 
termed "Educational Methods.'' Methods make up the 
Art of Teaching, as Principles constitute the Science 
of Teaching. 

Chief Methods— Telling and Questioning. — Now, 
if we consider the matter, we shall come to the conclusion 
that there are just two leading methods of instruction : 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 63 

you may either tell the pupil what you wish him to 
know, or you may, by Questions closely pat, lead him to 
find it out for himself. This seems obvious enough : and 
writers on education accordingly recognize the former 
as the Didactic, or Lecturing, method, and the latter as 
the Interrogative, or Catechetical, method. 

Interrogative Method. 

Looking at these two modes of instruction by them- 
selves, apart from special circumstances and conditions, 
we can be in no doubt as to which is the more stimulative 
and awakening, and therefore the more educating. What 
we merely tell may fall on dull ears and passive minds ; 
whereas, if we lead the mind to discover truth for itself, 
we secure that activity which our first Principle, co-opera- 
tion, demands, and without which there can be no mind- 
development — in other words no education. Hence, 
great teachers have usually been great questioners. The 
greatest of heathen teachers, Socrates, was so addicted to 
this method that " socratic " has become synonymous with 
"interrogative." And One, yet greater than he, while 
He answered what Socrates could only ask, was a ques- 
tioner of wondrous power and depth. And it cannot be 
too often urged upon young Sunday school workers, that 
the most common fault of method in those who teach the 
Bible to the young, is to tell too much, and question too 
little. 

There are several forms in which a teacher should 
employ this method, and also some common mistakes in 
its use which it will be well to avoid. 

Four Uses of Questions. — Questions are needed, 
First, to ascertain what the pupil knows at the outset, 
so that the " common starting-point," of which we have 
spoken in a previous page, may be clearly ascertained. 
A few plain, direct questions, previously prepared, should 



64 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

find a place at the beginning of every Bible lesson. These 
we may term Preliminary Questions. 

Secondly, there are questions which enter largely into 
what one may call the main body of the lesson ; and which, 
by skilfully guiding the class- conversation, lead the pupils 
to find out one point after another, so instructing them- 
selves, and fixing truths on their own minds in the surest 
possible way. The name given to these is Questions of 
Instruction. 

Thirdly, at the close of a lesson, or, better still, at the 
close of each section of the lesson, questions are needed 
to ascertain how much has really been learned by the 
scholars. Such are termed Examinatory Questions. 

There is a fourth class, which the moral and religious 
instructor should by no means overlook, as they con- 
tinually occur in the teaching of Christ and His apostles. 
We refer to those which require no verbal answer, but are 
designed to stimulate reflection or to quicken the con- 
science. The following will serve as examples : — If I have 
told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall 
ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? " " If the 
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and 
the sinner appear ? " " How shall we escape, if we neglect 
so great salvation ? " Such questions, which may be 
termed Applieatory, are most impressive and salutary, 
when wisely introduced. 

Abuse of Questioning. — There is an abuse as well 
as a use of the Interrogative method. A question must 
be in accordance with the great principle of Adaptation, 
and be suited to the comprehension and attainments of the 
scholars. If too difficult, the learner feels unfairly treated, 
or perhaps discouraged and humiliated ; if too simple, 
there is no stimulus to thought, and the scholars, unless 
very young, are offended at such a "babyish" exercise. 
But beside these two extremes, the following are equally 
objectionable : — 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 65 

" Leading " questions, which put the answer into the 
pupil's mouth, and give him no mental exercise at all. 
For instance, " John the Baptist was a good man, wasn't 
he ? " " And he lived — where ? In the wilderness, wasn't 
it ? " " Yes ; he didn't live in a nice comfortable house, 
as we do, did he ? but away out by himself." " And 
what used he to do ? preach, didn't he ? " " Yes, preached 
to the people," etc.. etc. This may be teaching, though in 
very bungling fashion; but it certainly is not questioning. 
It is merely asking assent to what is told ; and this 
children soon learn to give without paying the slightest 
attention to what is being said. Indeed, questions re- 
quiring only " Yes " or " No " for an answer are, as a rule, 
to be avoided. They are allowable, however, if they 
serve as stepping-stones to more genuine interrogation. 
Thus — "Did Christ comply with the disciples' request? " 
(" Yes ") " Then, what do you suppose He thought of 
it?" 

Ambiguous questions are equally common, and equally 
objectionable. Except when a teacher specially desires 
a variety of replies, in an enumeration of objects or 
qualities, or an expression of choice or opinion on the part 
of his class, each question should admit of but one answer, 
and therefore be so framed as to exclude a larger number. 
Hence such inquiries as " What was David? " " Wliat did 
Joshua do when Moses was dead ? " " If people love God, 
what will God do to them f " " Wliere do good children 
love to go ? " etc., are indefinite and unfair, because two 
or three equally correct answers may be given, and yet 
if the teacher condemns as "wrong" all but the one he 
wants, the other pupils feel discouraged, and say within 
themselves, " My answer was just as good as that." 

In order to avoid these and similar mistakes, the young 
teacher should mentally go over his questions beforehand 
and see where they need mending. The perfection of 
interrogation is by means of a chain of questions to bring 

F 



66 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

out every point in succession which you desire to be 
elicited. And this is far from being difficult, while every 
exercise will bring: an increase of skill. It is also desirable 
as a matter of prudence, for this method requires careful 
handling ; and we have of fcen seen a whole school thrown 
into confusion by random or vague inquiries, which brought 
out all sorts of replies except the ones hoped for, and 
finally set the entire assembly of juveniles in a tumult 
of hilarity. 

Elliptical Method. 

There is a modification of questioning which is called 
the Elliptical method, and consists in leaving out words 
or parts of sentences for the pupils to fill in. Thus — 
' c When Jesus came down from the" (Scholars: "moun- 
tain") " he saw a poor man who was called a " (" leper") 
" who said to Jesus, Lord, if thou " (" wilt ") " thou canst 
make me " (" clean ") ; and so on. This method is scarcely 
suited to any but mere children, as it is but a mild sort of 
stimulant, and has an infantile sound. Its real place is in 
going over a lesson to see if it has been remembered. It 
saves time, and it calls forth co-operation. It excites some 
curiosity, and if carefully used involves gradation of teach- 
ing also. But the ellipses {i.e. the words or phrases left 
out for the children to supply) should be essential ones, 
not mere particles or catchwords ; and to give the first 
syllable as a crutch to help them is specially weak and 
unsatisfactory. 

Didactic Method. 
Limits of Interrogation. — Stimulating and invalu- 
able as the Interrogative and Elliptical Methods un- 
doubtedly are, when used with care and judgment, it must 
be obvious that there are limits to their employment. You 
cannot " question out " of a pupil's mind any fact which 
is not already there, or which may not be inferred from his 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 67 

previous knowledge. You may lead him to new thoughts 
concerning what he knows, and you may help him to draw 
new conclusions from the materials previously stored in 
his understanding. But new facts must be communicated 
by telling in some form or other. Again, the process of 
reasoning out by the interrogatory method, is often lengthy 
and more or less complicated. Sometimes this is worth 
while ; as, for instance, if the truth reached be of special 
importance, and doubts and difficulties have to be met 
and overcome ; but often it is not worth the time and 
trouble No general rules can be laid down for either 
course ; but it may be remarked that moral principles are 
best worked out by questions, while historical events and 
other mutters of fact are best given in a didactic form. 
For example, we are teaching from the Acts of the Apostles, 
and the subject is, we will say, the sin and punishment of 
Ananias and Sapphira. Now, the aim of a wise Christian 
teacher will be to engrave on the scholars' minds, not the 
mere circumstances and surroundings of the narrative, 
but the moral lessons with which those facts are fraught. 
To show that lying in any form, hypocrisy, religious hypo- 
crisy — are abominations in the sight of a God of infinite 
rectitude ; these are the truths to be brought home to the 
learner's mind and conscience. Hence, the outward facts 
may be told indirectly by reading the passage with a few 
explanatory remarks ; or directly by relating the story in 
simple language. (The latter plan is best when the scholars 
are not yet able to read with facility.) But the moral 
principles involved in the conduct of Ananias and his wife 
could be most impressively taught by questioning out. 

It would, doubtless, be possible by elaborate questioning 
t© show that Sapphira was likely to support her husband 
in the garbled statement which they had agreed to 
make, and also that it might have been expected that a 
severe example would be made of these first and dangerous 
offenders. But the time thus spent would be almost thrown 



68 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

away. On the other hand, the moral aspects of the case 
might be simply asserted — " They were guilty of this and 
that sin, and so they richly deserved their fate," etc. But 
it would be far more forcible and convincing to lead the 
scholars, by a few prepared questions, to pronounce judg- 
ment for themselves.* 

The Didactic Method is the most natural and direct, 
and though often abused in the Sunday school class and 
elsewhere, has most important uses in Bible instruction. 
In the case of historical and biographical lessons, in 
descriptions of places, natural objects, and striking pheno- 
mena, and in statements of size, distance, colour, etc., 
telling in simple language, and then questioning on what 
has been so communicated, will be found, on the whole, 
the most manageable method of teaching. Of course this 
telling is often indirect, as above stated, the portion of 
Scripture read being the actual instructor. Yet so 
numerous are the errors into which children of all ages 
fall in interpreting the language of the Old and New 
Testaments, that it is always needful either to repeat the 
chief particulars in simple, every -day English, or, better still, 
to get the scholars themselves to reproduce what they 
have read in their own language. If they can do this, they 
understand the lesson. 

The Illustrative Method. 

This is a well-known and popular form of Didactic 
instruction founded upon the principles of Analogy and 
Association. It is telling by the help of comparison ; 
and all figurative language, similes, metaphors, fables, 
parables, and allegories are examples of the above-named 
method. Having long since discussed this method in a 

* The late Jacob Abbott has some useful remarks on this point 
in his little work, "The Way to do Good" — a book wlrioh, like 1 is 
"Young Christian" and "Corner Stone," is far too little known. 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 69 

little treatise, entitled " Illustrative Teaching "* — the first, 
it is believed, ever written on the subject, though others 
have since appeared — a few brief hints will suffice for our 
present purpose. 

Twofold Uses of Illustration. — The chief uses of 
Illustration are to explain and to attract. When a fact 
or truth is obscure, the readiest way of illuminating it is 
to use a comparison. For popular use, and therefore in 
teaching the young, an apt illustration has tenfold the 
power of an argument. No theological propositions have 
ever so exhibited the evil of sin, and the Father's love to 
the sinner, as the three matchless parables of Luke xv. 
The doctrine of the new birth was brought home to the 
mind of Nicodemus by reference to " the way of the wind," 
and the unwelcome doctrine of salvation through the death 
of the Saviour was pictured in the corn of wheat dying in 
the ground to live again in harvest. 

And with this illuminating power comes an attractive- 
ness in well- chosen illustrations which is felt by old and 
young, though for the latter it is more indispensably 
necessary. If we would be interesting teachers of children 
and young people, we must illustrate freely and skilfully. 
It is useless to expect that their minds will appreciate or 
remember moral and spiritual truths unless these are 
linked to familiar objects and events. It was thus that 
our Lord deigned to deal with those who, while men in 
years, were but children in spiritual understanding. By 
making all nature and all human life eloquent with in- 
struction, He took captive the attention of His hearers, 
and wrung praise from the admiring lips of those who 
would have laid hands upon Him. The sky above, the 
ground beneath, the cattle on the hillsides, the sun in its 
splendour, the lilies in their silent beauty, the grass in its 
lowliness, the gorgeous temple, the village well, the fishers 

* Published by the Sunday School Union, price 6d. (Fourth 
edition.) 



70 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

on the lake, the shepherds beside the folds, the children 
playing in the market-place, the noble at his banquet, the 
beggar by the wayside, — all these, and many more, were 
associated by Christ with things unseen and eternal, in 
words such as " never man spake " before. In this, as in 
relation to His own spotless character, He says to every 
Sunday school teacher, " Follow Me." 

Kinds of Illustration. — In classifying illustrations 
it may perhaps be safe to assert that short Anecdotes are 
the easiest to manage, and the most attractive to young 
children. Of these, such as have come under the teacher's 
own observation, or have recently occurred, especially if 
in the scholar's neighbourhood, are the most telling. Next 
come Bible incidents, particularly from less familiar parts 
of Scripture. (The former excite sympathy, the latter 
awaken curiosity.) Then events from English or general 
history. Then simple comparisons, drawn from nature, 
art, or everyday life (such as may be found in abundance 
in Scripture), e.g. " He shall be like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water." " The wicked are like the troubled 
sea," " What is your life ? it is even as a vapour," " He 
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver," " lie shall dash 
them in pieces like a potter's vessel," etc., 

" So, like the sun, may I fulfil 
The business of the day ; 
Begin my work betimes, and still 
March on my heavenly way." 

In using metaphors, where an object is said to be what it 
represents, e.g. "I am the door," " Ye are God's building," 
" Ye are the epistles of Christ," etc., care must be taken 
with younger scholars to prevent confusion of ideas. It is 
better to open out such figures by turning them into 
simpler comparisons and explaining how the one is " like" 
the other. The small boy who was found crying because 
he had been told that he must be " Christ's little lamb" 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 71 

and who objected to wearing a fleece and a tail, may be an 
apocryphal character ; but his mistake is certainly of no 
very uncommon kind. 

Hearers' Misconceptions. — In the sketch of the life 
of Archdeacon Hare, already quoted, it is related of his 
pulpit illustrations, that the rustics who heard him fell 
into errors much less excusable. " He spoke of the danger 
of men ' playing at ninepins with Truth,' and they thought 
he was warning young labourers against beer and skittles. 
He likened fiery controversialists to men who ' walked 
with lucifer matches in their pockets,' and the farmers 
thanked him for the zeal with which he watched over their 
farmyards and stacks. He referred, by way of illustration, 
to the devotion of the Italian peasants to the Madonna, 
and he was reported to have told his congregation that 
they ought to worship the Virgin Mary." Such instances 
as these will not, we trust, be lost upon our readers. They 
eloquently echo the old maxim, " Strive to teach, not 
only so that the children can understand you, but so that 
they cannot misunderstand you ! " And this applies more 
to illustrations. Figures of speech gratify the imagination 
of a child, and are therefore allowable and useful, but 
fancy must not be allowed to run riot. 

Parables* and Allegories are, for the most part, too 
lengthy and complex for use in class-teaching ; but a short 
fable will often point a moral with advantage, and it is 
sure to be enjoyed if quaint and humorous. 

In the choice of illustrations, preference should be given 
to those which are short. As each Bible lesson should 
include several, no one anecdote or comparison should be 

* This remark is intended to apply to parables of human composi- 
tion. Those of our Lord are, of course, introduced into the Sunday 
school lesson series from time to time as subjects for special study. 
Then the whole exercise is devoted to explaining and enforcing their 
meaning. The mode of doing this will be pointed out in the next 
chapter. 



72 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

of undue length. It should be familiar, by which we 
mean that as it is intended to cast light on something else, 
it must not need to be itself explained. It should be 
strictly appropriate, not far-fetched or seemingly pointless, 
and it should be kept subordinate to the truth it illustrates. 
Do not let the incident or comparison overtop that for the 
sake of which you relate it, otherwise you will be in danger 
of putting a six-foot frame round a miniature, or hiding 
the jewels by a too showy casket. Do not elaborate your 
illustrations. Bring them in sharply and forcibly ; relate 
them in few words ; show clearly what point they bear 
upon, and pass on. 

The collecting of illustrations will be referred to in a 
subsequent page. 

Vary your Methods. — A skilful teacher will use the 
above-named methods as an able workman uses his tools, 
taking up first one and then another, as necessity de- 
mands or taste suggests. Wo Bible lesson should be given 
by means of any one method alone. Questions and Illustra- 
tions will always be requisite, and more or less of Didactic 
teaching is also needful. This interchange is called a 
" Mixed Method,'' and it will be a useful exercise if our 
readers will apply the hints given in the present chapter 
to some particular discourses of the Great Teacher, remem- 
bering that probably few of these divine compositions are 
related in full. The following may serve as examples : — 
Matt, vii., xi., xviii. 1-14, xxiv. 23-51 ; Luke iv. 16-27, 
vi. 17-49, x., xii., xiii. 18-35, xv., xvii. ; John iii. 1-21, 
iv., vi., x. 1-30, xii. 20-36, xiv., xv., xvi. A reverent ex- 
amination of passages such as these will do more to 
help a teacher of the young than many pages of formal 
counsel. 

Only let the Principles and Methods already defined 
be kept fully in view, and used as keys, to unlock, as it 
were, the secrets of those " Model Lessons." 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION : THEIR USE IN BIBLE TEACHING. 73 

REFERENCES. 

" Manual," chap. x. 

" The Art of Teaching in a Sunday School." By J. G. Fitch, M.A. 
" Illustrative Teaching." By W. H. Groser. 
" The Art of Picturing." By W. II. Groser. 

Trumbull's ''Teaching and Teachers," chap, iv., On Methods in 
Review. 



74 THE YOUNG TEACHES. 



CHAPTER V. 

BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 

Weekly Preparation. — In speaking of Scripture know- 
ledge as a qualification for Sunday school teaching, re- 
ference was made to the duty of weekly preparation, 
which devolves on every one who has been intrusted with 
the care of a Sabbath class. One, and often two, lessons 
have to be studied and prepared every week; and until 
some facility has been gained in this work the labour is 
not inconsiderable. Hence, we have urged the importance 
of ample Biblical knowledge being acquired before begin- 
ning to teach in a Sunday school. 

The necessity for such preparation will hardly be 
gainsaid by any of our readers. Just as the physician or 
the barrister must study each " case " submitted to him, 
and the minister must devote close attention to the 
subjects of his pulpit discourses, independently of their 
previous professional training, — so the Bible teacher of 
children must give his mind, week by week, to those 
sacred topics which he is to unfold to his young disciples. 
Neglect of this duty will insure failure, and probably 
humiliation ; while the ease and comfort of the class 
exercises will largely depend on the fidelity and thorough- 
ness with which it nas been performed. But argument is 
scarcely needed to defend the practice; what is really 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 75 

required (and, in the writer's experience, is usually appre- 
ciated) is a rough outline of the conditions to be fulfilled 
— a sort of ground plan from which the inexperienced 
teacher may build up the fabric of instruction. Such we 
will now endeavour to supply. 

Sympathy with the Lesson-subject. — The import- 
ance of sympathy has been dwelt on more than once in the 
preceding chapters. We have spoken of that heart- 
sympathy with children and with Sunday school work 
which is essential in a teacher; and we have also 
endeavoured to enforce that general sympathy between 
teacher, scholar, and Bible-subject, which is requisite for 
commencing a lesson on a satisfactory basis. There is yet 
another aspect of the oneness of mind and heart which we 
call by that name, not less essential to usefulness and 
success : the teacher must be in moral and spiritual, as 
well as intellectual, sympathy with each lesson, before he 
begins to communicate it to others. It is something: to 
feel that we have " mastered the passage " in all its facts 
and details, its history and connections ; but it is im- 
measurably more important to feel that the passage has 
mastered us, — has taken possession of mind and heart, so 
that it seems fuller of light and life than ever before, and 
we are eager to impart our knowledge and our convictions 
to our youthful charge. 

Divine Aid. — But this can only be when sacred 
truth is studied with earnest and prayerful desire for the 
Spirit's teaching — " Make me to understand Thy precepts, 
so shall I talk of all Thy wondrous works." " In Thy 
light shall we see light." We have no right to expect the 
" baptism from on high" for our scholars unless it has 
first descended upon our own souls. We may, like 
Apollos, be " mighty in the Scriptures, skilful in utter- 
ance, and trained in the way of the Lord," but we need 
also to be like him, " fervent in the Spirit," in order to 
" speak" and "teach" u the things of the Lord." And 



76 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

this " fervour " is not mere emotion — still less is it mere 
excitement; but that glow of mind and heart which 
results when the spirit of truth reveals the truth to us. 

Early Preparations. — The preparedness which we 
are commending will be promoted if the study of each 
sacred theme is begun early in the week. It is a good plan 
to read one or both of the selected passages at the close of 
the Lord's Day, so that they are lodged in the mind, at 
least in their leading features, when the working week 
begins. An early period, however brief, should also be 
secured for private prayer and meditation on the lesson ; 
after which it may be allowed to shape itself in the 
thoughts before it is finally sketched on paper. But 
writing materials should be always available — if they are 
only a pencil and a scrap of paper — to catch the passing 
ideas which, in these busy days, are so apt to elude our 
recollection. Our Bible lessons ought to be continually 
before our minds, so that w r e maybe ever on the watch for 
facts and illustrations adapted to sustain or exemplify the 
testimony of Holy Writ. 

Practical Hints. — In offering suggestions on the 
work of lesson-preparation we desire to keep in view the 
average young teacher, whose resources and attainments 
are moderate, whose library is far from large, and whose 
time for study is broken and limited. In not a few cases, 
also, the mental faculties have been so imperfectly dis- 
ciplined in early life that the effort to study at all is a 
somewhat painful one, — though, be it remembered, that 
effort forms a most valuable means of self-training. 
Happily, such obstacles are not fatal to progress or even to 
excellence and success: singleness of aim and earnestness 
of purpose will far more than compensate for the lack of 
literary advantages. Very few books indeed are indis- 
pensable for the weekly task. A Bible with clear print, 
marginal references, and maps ; a "Cruden's Concordance," 
unabridged; and one of the Sunday school periodicals 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 77 

which give lesson notes,* will generally suffice in the way 
of printed helps The writer would urge with all possible 
emphasis the wisdom and duty of searching the Scriptures 
by themselves, before appealing to human comments and 
opinions. Let the Bible be its own expositor, first and 
chiefly ; the Concordance will soon demonstrate its ex- 
cellence over every other commentary. A much larger 
part of the contents of our Biblical Cyclopaedias and 
Handbooks than is usually supposed consists of Scripture 
statements rearranged, and might be obtained from the 
inspired Volume at first hand. If this be true of geogra- 
phical and historical facts, much more fully does it apply 
to doctrines and precepts. There is real danger lest in 
the multitude of " cisterns " we lose sight of the great 
"fountain of living waters." 

Views and Aims.— With Bible, Concordance, and 
two or three works of reference before him, the young 
teacher sits down to study and prepare the lesson which 
is to be the subject of instruction on the coming Lord's 
Day. Let him once more lay to heart the great fact that 
he is about to employ spiritual truth for distinctly spiritual 
ends. The object of meeting that band of youthful 
learners is not simply to impart information, but to mould 
character. We teach "the truth as it is in Jesus," in 
order to lead the children to love and trust Him, and so to 
be made like Him. Instruction, even Bible instruction, 
is only a means to an end ; and we fail, where failure is 
most disastrous, if we rest satisfied with the means alone. 
If, however, our aims are right, we shall deeply feel the 
need in our preparation, as much as in our actual teaching, 
of that divine enlightenment and inspiration without 
which nothing attempted for God can be truly strong or 
truly enduring. Yet this conviction should never make 
us less orderly or diligent in the use of arts and methods. 

* The Pilgrim Teacher, Sunday School Times, and Sunday School 
Journal may be specially mentioned. 






78 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

The heart and conscience must be reached through the 
understanding, in order that religious decision may rest on 
rational conviction, and not be the mere product of passing 
emotions. We honour the God of grace when we work 
in accordance with the laws which the God of nature has 
ordained. 

Leading Inquiries. — Three questions may now be 
proposed, as waymarks to guide in the study of the 
selected passage — 

What does it mean? (Explanation.) 
What does it teach P {Exposition.) 
To whom does it apply ? {Application.) 
This is the natural and necessary order of things. For, 
on the one hand, as before remarked, neither we nor our 
scholars can be impressed by truths which we do not first 
understand; so, on the other, each must perceive their 
application to his own character and conduct in order 
to render them practically useful. 

Lessons Classified. — Nor is there any essential 
difference in studying or teaching the different kinds of 
Bible lessons which from time to time are placed before 
us. They consist of Historical, Doctrinal, or Figura- 
tive passages of Scripture. Three-fourths, perhaps, are 
historical narratives, which must obviously be treated on 
the above plan. The meaning of the facts stated must 
first be ascertained. This is the true foundation ; but of 
itself it is of little religious value. The chief use of all 
history lies in its moral teachings, and apart from these 
the mere events of past ages, even if they be Bible events, 
are but baggage with which to load the memory and 
understanding. Hence, after the facts are grasped, their 
moral and spiritual lessons must be unfolded. Another 
step follows : the many truths to be elicited from a 
Scripture narrative have various applications. Some will 
suit one class and some another. A selection, therefore, 
needs to be made, and the practical lessons so selected 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 79 

must be adapted and enforced in a manner specially fitted 
to our own particular hearers. 

Doctrinal subjects are those in which moral and 
spiritual truths are more or less explicitly stated. Some- 
times it is a direct announcement, e.g. " God so loved the 
world," etc. ; sometimes a precept, " Commit thy way unto 
the Lord," etc. ; sometimes a promise, "Whoso hearkeneth 
unto Me shall dwell safely; " sometimes a prayer, " Create 
in me a clean heart, God ! " etc., etc. Here again, there 
must first be a clear understanding of what is stated, — 
the terms used must be explained; then the truths them- 
selves are opened out or expounded, and finally applied to 
the particular cases of our pupils, individually as well as 
collectively. 

Figurative subjects are either parables (which have a 
narrative form with an underlying spiritual meaning) or 
shorter emblems, which consist of comparisons between 
material things and their spiritual antitypes. Here, again, 
the outward story or natural object must be first explained, 
then the spiritual meaning brought out, and then this 
meaning applied. 

Plan of Lesson-study. — Whatever class of subject 
is to be studied, the young teacher should follow some 
definite plan, however simple, so that he may not overlook 
important matters connected with it, and be found want- 
ing when his scholars and he are talking together. The 
following " heads " of inquiry may serve as guideposts : — 

1. Persons; 2. Places; 3. Dates; 4. Doings; 5. Doc- 
trines; 6. Ditties. Or, 1. Surroundings; 2. Scope; 3. 
Persons; 4. Places; 5. Criticism; 6. Customs; 7. Diffi- 
culties; 8. Doctrines. Or again, 1. Authorship (when a 
new book is commenced) ; 2. Scope ; 3. Parallel Passages; 
4. Words and Phrases (to be explained) ; 5. Manners and 
Customs ; 6. Difficulties ; 7. Doctrines. 

The results of the orderly study of the passage after 
some such plan as the foregoing will be jotted down 



80 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

roughly on paper. Then will come the final arrangement 
of the lesson for teaching- Here young workers often 
find considerable difficulty. The passage gets " all of a 
tangle," and will not shape itself into a manageable form. 
There is no need for surprise or for discouragement. 
Look steadily at the subject as you would through a 
telescope or microscope, and focus while you look. Con- 
tinued attention will resolve mists into stars gleaming 
with heavenly brightness ; and shapeless dots and patches 
into living creatures " fearfully and wonderfully made." 

Look specially at what you have set down as the 
Doctrines taught by the passage. Consider these, and 
divide your lesson accordingly. If you have four, five, or 
six leading truths which the passage seems fairly to teach, 
put them down in the order of the verses out of which 
they most directly arise, and make a corresponding number 
of " sections," or " divisions," to your lesson, each section 
leading up to a " Doctrine." (Sometimes two doctrines 
will be taught by the same section ; but one is preferable, 
as more easily remembered.) Thus, suppose there are 
eighteen verses to be read (and generally that is more than 
sufficient), the best arrangement for you might possibly 
be — Section I., vers. 1, 2 ; Section II., vers. 3-8 ; Section 
III., vers. 9-13 ; Section IV., vers. 14, 15 ; Section V., 
vers. 16-18. Usually, the number of sections will be found 
to vary from three to six; but of course all depends on 
the character and teaching of the particular passage. 

The leading divisions being decided upon, a suitable 
Introduction to the lesson must be prepared with care. 
Enough, it is hoped, has been said in a previous chapter, 
under the heads of "Sympathy" and "Adaptation," to 
show how essential it is to start a Bible lesson with the 
wakeful interest of our scholars. It has also been shown 
that we may gain that interest by referring to something 
familiar, which touches their sympathies, or to something 
unknown, which tends to awaken curiosity. But, in order 






BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 81 

to retain what we have gained, our introduction must 
lead on to the lesson itself. As a rule, an Illustration, 
whether a suitable anecdote or some striking comparison, 
makes the best kind of introduction for an ordinary 
Sunday school class. 

The Application of the Doctrines taught by the 
passage should also receive careful thought. It should 
follow each Doctrine as it is brought out, so that there 
will be as many Applications as Doctrines, and (generally) 
as many Doctrines as there are Sections to the lesson. This 
will avoid a common source of failure — a hurried applica- 
tion at the end of the class exercises, falling too often 
upon wearied, and therefore listless, ears. Let the special 
points to be applied be jotted down with the doctrines out 
of which they arise. 

Keeping up Attention. — Every teacher knows, 
generally by stern experience, that it is in the Application 
of religious truth that attention is most difficult to retain, 
and impression to be made. To counteract this, we have 
just suggested that such application should not be post- 
poned to the end of a lesson, but " worked in," so to 
speak, as the exercise proceeds. "We would also point 
out the value and importance of the " Illustrative method " 
at these stages of instruction. Moral and spiritual truth 
is more interesting and impressive, and therefore retained 
more firmly in the mind, when illustrated by apt comparison 
or striking ancedotes. Hence, when doctrines are applied, 
such illustrative matter should be introduced. Doubtless, 
this will add something to the work of preparation, but 
the reward will be proportioned to the trouble taken. 

Examples. — It may now, perhaps, be helpful to the 
reader, if we give a sample or two of such " Lesson Notes " 
as have been above described. There lies before us, as we 
are writing, the " International " Lesson for the coming 
Sunday. It is entitled " The Last Days of Joshua," and 
comprises vers. 14-29 of Joshua xxiv. 



82 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

A young teacher preparing for his class might possibly 
sketch out his lesson somewhat as follows : — 



ROUGH LESSON NOTES. 

The Last Days of Joshua (Josh. xxiv. 14-29). 

Scope. — About thirty years between entry into Palestine 
and Joshua's death. This shortly before the latter event 
(ver. 29). Gathering at Shechem, where law had been 
read to all Israel (viii.) ; natural amphitheatre ; voices 
distinctly heard (xxiii.) ; a previous gathering only of 
representatives ; this of all adult males. Joshua gives 
rapid sketch of past history and deliverances ; urges 
them to renew promise; gives warnings and counsels. 
People respond zealously. Stone erected as memorial. 
People dismissed. Joshua's death. 

Parallel Passages. — Comp. Last Words of Jacob (Gen. 
xlix.), Moses (Deut. xxxiii.), Samuel (1 Sam. xii.), David 
(2 Sam.xxii.). Choosing : comp. 1 Sam. vii. 3; 1 Kings 
xviii. 21 ; Mark x. 21. Self -confidence : Matt. viii. 19 ; Luke 
xxii. 33. Memorial Stones : vers. 26, 27 ; Judg. ix. 6 ; 
ver. 29. Servant of the Lord : comp. chap. i. 1. 

Words and Phrases. — Ver. 14, Flood, Euphrates ; ver. 
26, the booh, Deut. xxxi. 24. 

Manners and Customs. — Ver. 23, Put away. Perhaps 
teraphim, like Laban's, or some other relics of idolatry. 

Ver. 25, Statute. Recorded as part of the nation's 
history. 

Ver. 26, Stone. Like Jacob and Samuel, Oak — the 
oalc ; places often so indicated. Sanctuary, not ne- 
cessarily a building ; a place " holy " by its asso- 
ciations, Gen. xii. 6-8. 

Difficulties. — Ver. 19, Cannot. Not without spiritual 
change and divine strength ; comp. Peter (Luke xxii. 
33, 34). 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 83 

Doctrtnes. — 1. Yer. 14. We all are servants of some 
Master (John viii. 34). 

2. Yer. 15. All have the power to choose whom they 
will serve. 

3. Yers. 16-18. Reason for serving God (Rom.xii. 1). 

4. Yers. 19, 20. Easy to resolve, but not easy to do. 

5. Yers. 21-25. How to make the choice. 

6. Yers. 26-29. Silent witnesses. 

From the above rough notes, a Lesson might be 
arranged in various ways. The above scheme would give 
six Doctrines, and therefore six Sections to the exercise. 
Nos. 1 and 2, however, might fairly be placed together 
in one section, and No. 6 suggests some "last words " that 
will be easily illustrated and applied. This will give five 
Sections ; all the above Doctrines being suitable for the 
young, and capable of application to youthful life and 
character. 

The title of the Lesson suggests an Introduction — " The 
Last Words of Great Men " — which offers a wide field for 
selection. There is so much of bright and striking 
incident in the facts of the narrative itself, that com- 
paratively few additional Illustrations are absolutely 
required. One or two may be introduced, however, to 
give increased interest and impressiveness to the Doctrines 
and the application of them. 

Sketch of Lesson. 

Introduction. — Last Words always impressive — re- 
membered — those of great men not always striking. 
Nelson's : " I thank God I have done my duty." "Anchor ! 
Hardy, anchor!" We are going to read the last words 
of a greater commander than Nelson — why greater, we 
shall presently see [Passage read first time']. 

Recapitulation. — We have followed the career of 
this great soldier, from his first appointment to his final 
victory. Had had perhaps seventeen or eighteen years of 



84 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

quiet after the weary wilderness and the fierce tumult of 
conquest. Now he feels he is getting old ; not much longer 
to live ; past one hundred ; and like to meet the people 
once more; old comrades. Mr. Herkomer's picture, " The 
Last Muster;" old soldiers at Chelsea. (Read ver. 1, 
and picture the scene.) What would it remind them of ? 
(viii.) They would think how their leader was altered 
in outward appearances ; but the voice has the old, brave, 
cheery ring about it. Joshua speaks to the chiefs, the 
judges, and the councillors; and they repeat it to those 
of the vast multitude who cannot hear it for themselves. 
He told them the old story of which they were never 
tired — how they had risen, from being a crowd of slaves, 
into a great nation. And then come the words of our 
lesson. 

Sect. I. Vers. 14, 15. — Refer back to Introduction. 
What did Nelson mean by having " done his duty " ? 
(Conquered the enemy.) Yes ; and so he died satisfied 
Had not Joshua done the same ? Yet, if you look carefully 
at these verses you will see that he was not satisfied. In 
fact, he was very anxious. Can you find out what about ? 
Turn to Deut. xxxi. 29. Had that come true yet (chap, 
xxiii. 8) ? How old did we say Joshua was ? What was 
he now expecting would happen to himself ? Yes ; and 
so he was afraid that after he was gone the people he 

cared so much for would ? Remember what good and 

wise advice he had given them long before ; and ver 15 
shows he had given them something better even than 
counsel. But now he calls this great meeting to spend 
a few parting words. They are just like those of a soldier 
— short, plain, and to the point ; but they came from his 
heart. Look at them carefully. First, ver. 15. " Fear," 
" Serve," "Put away;" and again, "Serve." [Explain 
and illustrate each. "Fear" not fight; "serve" not like 
slaves in Egypt, but as Joshua served Moses, " for the 
love of it;" "put away" dangerous things — like fire- 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 85 

arms, gunpowder, or infected clothes.] Why so much 
about " serving " — almost every verse in oar lesson has 
something about it ? Two reasons — because Joshua knew 
that every one must serve some master. Jesus said, " No 
man can serve two masters," and yet there are only two 
we can serve, either God or sin. (See John viii. 34.) 
Perhaps Joshua recollected how once, when he was young, 
the people had risen in rebellion against Moses, and had 
made one of the gods of Egypt, and worshipped it ; and 
how Moses had cried out, "Who is on the Lord's side? " 
and there was a great division into two parties, one for 
God, the others for the idol (Exod. xxxii.). It looks as if 
Joshua had this in his mind when he spoke (ver. 16). 
And it is the question which comes to all of us, some 
time or other ; and which no one can answer but our- 
selves. No one can choose for us. This was tbe other 
reason why Joshua pressed so earnestly for an answer; 
and it is why we, your teachers, keep pressing on you the 
need for prompt decision for God. Youth is the chief 
choosing time ; few come to God in middle life, fewer still 
in old age. 

Apply. Which service will you choose ? You must 
serve some master. You must choose which master it shall 
be. Christ's service is the only true freedom. Satan's 
is slavery worse than that of Egypt. 

(The remaining sections may be similarly worked out 
in free conversation.) 

Sect. II. Vers. 16-18. — God's mercies. His preserving 
care, His gracious protection, His special deliverances. 
Similar blessings now. "Therefore" (ver. 18). See 
Rom. xii. 1. " Reasonable " to serve our best and kindest 
Friend. 

Sect. III. Vers. 19, 20. — Easy to resolve, not so easy 
to keep good resolutions. Need for strength beyond our 
own. Strength to do right, and strength to resist evil. 
The Israelites' special temptations. What " strange gods " 



8() THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

are worshipped now ? Always resolve in dependence on 
God's help. 

Sect. IV. Vers. 21-25. — Making a promise. How 
promises are often made and broken. Here we have a 
whole nation making a promise. What called in ver. 25 ? 
What is a " covenant " ? (Explain by reference to an 
apprentice's indentures, or " covenants "in a lease.) Im- 
portance of covenants. The people's covenant with ? 

A solemn matter. " Blue ribbon " covenants, covenants 
with God. Practice of Philip Henry's family, etc. 

Apply. The covenant should be made seriously, intelli- 
gently, deliberately, and finally. You will never repent 
it in after days. See what David said about this when 
he was old, and had many troubles (2 Sam. xxiii. 5). 

Sect. V. Vers. 26-29.— " Witnesses." Illustrate by 
court of law. " Covenants " always are " witnessed." So 
here. Joshua had already mentioned one class of witnesses 
(vers. 22, 23) ; now another (ver. 17) ; and there would 
be a third (vers. 25, 26). He seemed to say to them, " My 
voice and the voice of these c elders ' will soon be silent in 
the grave. Yet if you leave the God who has done so 
much for you and bow down to idols of wood and stone, 
your memories and your consciences will be witnesses to 
condemn you for your broken promise. Whenever you 
pass this stone, it will seem to cry out against you. And 
this book in which I have written an account of your 
covenant will be a silent witness too. And now, farewell 
for ever on earth. Be faithful and obedient to God, and 
He will bless you and defend you from all your enemies." 

Apply. Head ver. 29. — Parents, ministers, teachers, 
die; but there are silent witnesses to the good resolutions 
you make. The quiet bedroom where you prayed, the 
old place in the class, the worn Bible and hymn-book, the 
old sanctuary, the old home, the mother's grave, and, above 
all, the voice of conscience, will speak of resolutions happily 
kept, or the covenant broken and forgotten. 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 87 

"Notes," Written and Printed. — The foregoing 
roughly condensed sketch will serve to exemplify the 
manner in which a sacred narrative may be prepared for 
the purpose of class-instruction. It will be seen that the 
methods employed are chiefly the Didactic, the Illustrative, 
and the Interrogative ; but it must be understood that in 
actual teaching a larger number of questions would be 
asked, it being most desirable to induce the scholars to 
contribute as much as possible to the conversation. The 
writer has always advocated the bringing of written notes 
into the class, unless a teacher's memory is very tenacious 
and reliable. Notes counteract the tendency to wander 
from the subject, and prevent the loss of the " thread of 
discourse." Printed notes of any kind are objectionable, 
as suggesting to the scholars that their teacher is a mere 
retailer of other men's thoughts and words, but written 
notes imply that he has at least thought bis pupils worth 
taking pains for. 

Proportion of Illustrative Matter. — Tt was re- 
marked in a previous page that the amount of illustration 
needed in a given lesson must depend chiefly on the 
presence or absence of such matter in the portion of 
Scripture read. The Sermon on the Mount, a chapter in 
Romans or Ephesians, or a selection from the Psalms or 
Proverbs, would generally require much more illustrative 
material to be supplied from without, than a historical 
narrative like the above, or a fictitious narrative, such 
as the parable of the Wedding Garment or the Prodigal 
Son. In other words, when moral and spiritual truth is 
stated in a direct form, with nothing of the " story " about 
it, it must be " clothed upon" with anecdotes and other 
illustrations to render it intelligible and attractive to the 
young. 

For example, the Sunday School Union " Morning 
Lessons " for the month in which we are writing, are taken 
from Matt. v. and vi., and bear the following titles : " The 



8«8 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Blessed Life," " The Law and the Gospel/ ' " Giving and 
Praying," " Care and Trust." Now, while it is true that 
these chapters include some very striking and beautiful 
figures and emblems, which in themselves illustrate the 
inner truths our Lord was uttering in respect to His 
kingdom, yet there is nothing of the historical or narra- 
tive element, nothing about particular persons or their 
actions and characters. Hence, such material must be 
supplied by the teacher; and accordingly, we find the 
various Sunday School periodicals giving samples of anec- 
dotes and other illustrations for use in the class. 

In arranging such passages for teaching (especially 
where the scholars are mere children), it will be advisable 
to select such verses as appear the most, simple and suit- 
able ; group them in " sections," as in a narrative lesson ; 
bring out and dwell upon one doctrine in each section ; 
illustrate it, and apply it to juvenile character and experi- 
ence. The most difficult of the four subjects above cited, 
for junior class instruction, is undoubtedly the second, 
"The Law and the Gospel" (Matt. v. 17-24; 38-48). 
What is a young teacher to do ? Try to " get through " the 
whole nineteen verses, or throw up the subject altogether 
and fall back on Moses or Joseph, David or Timothy ? 
We would reply, Neither The former course would violate 
the principle of adaptation ; the latter would furnish a 
dangerous precedent for evading any subsequent lesson- 
subjects which might appear more difficult than ordinary. 
Nor is there solid ground for diverging so far from the 
passage before us. Vers. 17-19, 38, 39, and 43-45, 
might be made to yield truths simple and practical. For 
example : 

I. Vers. 17, 18. — All that God says is sure to come 
true. 

II. Verr 19. — The way to be really great is to do the 
little things which God has told us. 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 89 

III. Yers. 38, 39. — Great fighters are not great in 
God's sight. The followers of Christ must bear rather 
than revenge injuries. 

IV. Yers. 43-45. — The greatest of all those who love 
all, and try to do good to all ; because they are most like 
Christ. 

No attempt needs to be made to explain the Oriental 
allusions in vers. 21-24, and 41, since junior scholars would 
not possess the knowledge requisite for understanding 
and appreciating them. They should, therefore, be passed 
over with some such remarks as, " You will understand 
these verses when you are older." 

Parables and Emblems. — A lesson on one of the 
Parables would be treated, as already intimated, in the 
same manner as a real narrative, dividing it into sections 
for the sake of convenience, and observing carefully in 
each to follow the true order, viz. : (1) The outward 
emblem. ; (2) the spiritual meaning ; (3) the 'practical 
application. 

Shorter figurative lessons, so abundant in Christ's 
teaching, but occurring also in all the didactic portions 
of the Old and New Testaments, should be similarly 
treated — the natural object first ; then its spiritual signifi- 
cation ; and then the application to everyday life and 
conduct. A common fault with young and earnest 
teachers is to rush too hastily to the second stage ; for- 
getting that (on the principles of association and analogy) 
it is only when the outward figure is securely lodged in 
the scholar's memory and understanding that the inward 
meaning and application can be retained also. The anchor 
must hold, or that which is fastened to it will soon 
drift far away. 

Blackboard Lessons. — Now that Blackboard Plans 
for Bible lessons are so frequently offered for use in 
junior classes, it may be well to remark that a " Black- 
board Lesson " does not represent any peculiarity of 



90 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

subject or even of method. The " board " is simply a 
" note-book " of wood on which catchwords or short 
sentences, representing the " heads " or "points" of a 
lesson, may be written so that the eye may aid the ear, 
and the points be more fully committed to memory The 
method of preparing a given lesson- subject is in no way 
affected by the use of a blackboard, more than by the use 
of a slip of paper, or by dispensing with writing alto- 
gether. It is a valuable help in junior-class teaching, for 
the reason just given, and also because the process of 
writing the key-words excites a measure of curiosity, if 
too much time be not occupied therein. 

The use of Pictures and Objects as aids to Sunday 
school instruction is better known than practised. It 
needs care and judgment where a separate room is not 
provided, as the production of a coloured print may 
divert the attention of neighbouring classes. Yet in the 
present day so many pictorial illustrations of sacred truth 
are continually published in one form or another, that 
opportunities of " illuminating " a text of Holy Scripture 
by engraving, photograph, or natural object, continually 
present themselves to our observant teacher, and should 
not be neglected for fear of being " singular." Drawings 
on a blackboard fall, of course, under the same head as any 
other drawings. In all cases such appliances should be 
used simply as illustrations of Scripture truth, and be laid 
aside as soon as that purpose has been accomplished. 

In bringing this chapter to a close, the writer would 
affectionately urge upon his younger co-workers the 
wisdom and the duty of grudging no pains in seeking to 
prepare for each sabbath's hallowed toil. Early, ample, 
prayerful, preparation is one of the chief essentials of 
comfort in teaching, as it is one of the indispensable con- 
ditions of success. But surely the highest motives may 
be appealed to here. " I think," said the noble Living- 



BIBLE LESSONS, AND HOW TO PREPARE THEM. 91 

stone, " that we ought never to apply such a word as 
sacrifice to anything that we can do for Him who laid 
down His life for us ; " and the sentiment should find an 
abiding-place in the hearts of all who labour in the 
pleasant mission-field at home. It is little enough that we 
can do for Him, at the best ; brief at most can be our 
term of earthly service, briefer still the period during 
which we can hold our young hearers beneath the sound 
of our voices. They must be won for Christ now, or 
the golden hour of decision will, in too many cases, have 
passed for ever. Could we view our work in the light 
of history — the history of many a guileless child who once 
sat on the forms of the Sunday school — we should need no 
human exhortations to fidelity as we gazed on the wreck 
of all that was once so fair. In wisdom and in love, the 
results of our labour are as yet hidden from our view; 
but down the long ages come the solemn words of Him 
who is our Pattern as well as our Lord, and from whom 
we draw our motive, our strength, and our inspiration : 
"I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is 
day ; the night cometh, when no man can work." 

u How can I, Lord, withhold 
Life's brightest hour 
From Thee ? or gathered gold, 
Or any power? 
Why should I keep one precious thing from Thee, 
When Thou hast given Thine own dear Self for me ? " 



REFERENCES. 

" Manual." Chap. XI. 

" Ready for Work." By W. II. Groser. 

" Through the Eye to the Heart. W. F. Crafts. $1.00. 



92 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CLASS TEACHING. 

Excusable Hesitation. — No thoughtful young Christian 
who has pondered the nature and capabilities of his 
chosen work, can enter upon the duty of instructing a 
band of children in any portion of Holy Writ, without 
some measure of shrinking and hesitation. The know- 
ledge that those youthful spirits are immortal ; that the 
truths to be communicated are essentially divine ; that 
the lesson about to be given must inevitably draw the 
learners nearer to, or repel them further from, God and 
His ways, and that its issues will reach beyond the present 
state of being ; such considerations as these, combined 
with a sense of personal inadequacy, may well solemnize the 
mind as each sabbath's engagements return. But while 
they inspire the question, " Who is sufficient ? " they ought 
also to suggest the answer, " Our sufficiency is of God." 
He, who regards the children with infinite love and com- 
passion, will not fail to work in and with those whom 
He has called to tell them the story of that love. It is 
ours faithfully to plant and tend and train ; it is His, 
and His alone, to give the increase. 

Manner in School. — With such views and feelings 
a teacher will not need to be reminded that his de- 
meanour in the school and in the class should be reverent 
and earnest. The humblest Sunday school is a con- 



CLASS TEACHING. 93 

secrated spot ; and the nature of its exercises should 
exclude all frivolities from its sacred precincts. Gossip 
and small-talk should find no place within its walls ; and 
every teacher should remember that his or her bearing, 
in word or in act, constitutes an open book, which the 
children will be only too quick to read. 

Towards the young people under their care, teachers 
should behave with an earnest kindness which expresses 
true sympathy and interest in all that concerns them. 
Anything approaching to an '•official " mannerism or the 
(supposed) air of a theological professor, must be banished 
from the class ; while the other extreme, of over-fami- 
liarity, is also to be carefully avoided. A scholar's love and 
confidence may be won without permitting any approach 
to rudeness ; indeed, genuine friendship must ever rest on 
mutual respect as well as mutual affection. 

Punctuality. — Early arrival at the school affords to 
a teacher legitimate and convenient opportunities for 
friendly inquiries, both personal and domestic, relating 
to each of his pupils, and so for the manifestation of 
sympathy, both verbal and practical, in their everyday 
affairs. Such personal interchange is no unfit preparation 
for teaching, since the moral sympathy awakened by 
kindly words smooths the road for the mental sympathy 
which the lesson will need. It may be added that the 
course now recommended is far preferable to that gossip- 
ing among the teachers which, in some schools, regularly 
precedes the " opening " of each sabbath's session. 

An orderly, reverent, and cheerful interest should be 
taken in the devotional exercises of the school, both before 
and after class instruction ; and by precept as well as 
example all the children should be encouraged to take 
part therein. The possession of a hymn-book by each 
scholar should be insisted on until that desirable end has 
been attained ; and reference should be made, whenever 
opportunity occurs, to the hymns and prayers. 



94 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Physical Conditions.-— Before commencing to teach, 
the physical comfort of the class should be attended to. 
If the privilege of a separate room be enjoyed, the ventila- 
tion will be under the teacher's control, and should be 
looked after carefully and regularly. The most impres- 
sive admonitions will be thrown away on pupils who are 
being gradually stupefied by the carbonic acid exhaled 
from their own lungs in a closely shut apartment; and 
even a bright and earnest teacher soon becomes, in point 
of energy and liveliness, "a spring shut up — a fountain 
sealed" (though not in the scriptural sense), under the 
influence of a worse narcotic than tobacco ! An ill- 
ventilated schoolroom should be made the subject of 
remonstrance and suggestion at teachers' meetings, since 
the matter has a far more intimate connection with atten- 
tion and impression than is generally recognized by busy 
superintendents and secretaries, too often "cumbered," 
like Martha, with " much serving." 

The size, construction, and position of seats is another 
material point. Many a well-prepared lesson has been 
robbed of its due influence by over-long legs, ill-sloped 
backs, or the absence of backs altogether, in the forms 
allotted to the juvenile hearers. So also the seats should 
be placed where every scholar can see and hear, and be 
seen and heard, without change of posture. Much im- 
provement has been effected in educational furniture 
during the past ten or fifteen years, but many glaring 
defects are still observable in the fittings of our Sunday 
schools. 

Devotional Exercises. — Preliminary also to actual 
instruction are the devotional exercises with which all 
Sunday schools commence, and to which the young 
teacher's earnest consideration should always be given. 
More "reform" is perhaps needed here even than in the 
matters of light, ventilation, and fittings. A few hints, 
extracted from a larger manual, may be repeated : — 



CLASS TEACHING. 95 

w There is no need, however, for the teacher to be mute. 
The interval offers an excellent opportunity for friendly 
interchange of kind inquiries between himself and his 
scholars, and for reference to other matters of interest 
which too often are thrust unseasonably into the brief 
season allotted to actual instruction. This can easily be 
managed without noise, and will exert a favourable in- 
fluence on both early and late comers. 

" At the first signal from the superintendent's desk all 
conversation and all movements from place to place should 
instantly cease. The hymn-books, if not already produced, 
should be called for by a gesture, and any attempt to talk 
or whisper promptly and gravely repressed. It must be 
admitted that the bearing and attitudes of Sunday scholars 
during school worship are seldom devotional, and often un- 
seemly and irreverent. Many have no hymn-books, and 
some who have hold them in positions where they cannot 
be read. Many — the elder lads especially — do not sing at 
all ; a few bawl loudly or chime in at intervals, in a style 
which is either simply frivolous or intentionally mis- 
chievous. Some loll, some sit, some talk, some pinch or 
pommel their companions — their teachers, good easy souls ! 
singing heartily with eyes averted from their charge, or 
with eyes closed, uniting fervently in the uttered prayer. 
The remedy for this common but most pernicious state 01 
things is to be sought, not in remonstrances or appeals 
from the desk, but in reformation in the class. Each 
teacher should not only set an example of earnest interest 
in the acts of united praise and prayer, but resolutely 
endeavour to excite similar feelings in his scholars. He 
should stand perfectly upright, and at a spot whence he 
can see every member of the class. Every tendency to 
levity must be instantly checked by a movement of the 
hand or a glance of the eye ; and if the tendency to dis- 
order is persistent, after the fault has been kindly pointed 
out, it will be advisable to keep the eyes open during 



96 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

prayer-time ; afterwards telling the children that this was 
necessary because they " could not be trusted," but will 
be gladly discontinued as soon as they are prepared to act 
in a more seemly manner. Devotion cannot be implanted, 
but habits of decorum should be perse veringly enjoined, 
and the duty and privilege of genuine worship frequently 
urged upon thoughtless youth." 

Of course, the foregoing hints apply to the closing 
equally with the opening exercises of the school. 

Our reader may perhaps be thinking that we have 
lingered too long on the threshold of actual lesson-giving. 
But, since there are always enough una, voidable obstacles 
to be confronted, it is no waste of time to remove those 
which may be averted by a little care and foresight. We 
will now, however, proceed to offer a few counsels on the 
practical use of a lesson prepared as already described. 

Reading Round. — Most teachers begin a lesson by 
"reading round," whatever the appointed passage of 
Scripture may be. The practice seems to us to be of 
doubtful expediency. Unless the children are already 
still and attentive, it appears hardly reverent to Holy 
Scripture to read verse by verse in order to produce quiet- 
ness ; nor is such reading likely to be " with the under- 
standing." Besides, on principles which will need no 
further exposition here, a passage of the Bible is much 
more likely to be understood and appreciated when the 
scholars have some idea of its bearings, than when they 
plunge, as it were, into a subject entirely new. Wherever, 
by the use of lesson-papers or other means, the children 
can be induced to prepare for the sabbath conversation 
beforehand — a most desirable step — this argument will 
not apply. Yet, on the whole, we consider that it is 
better to give the Introduction of the lesson before " read- 
ing round." It is not needful, however, to adopt an 
unvarying rule. Change is sometimes good, even for its 
own sake. 



CLASS TEACHING. 97 

The Introduction. — In the Introduction itself, care 
will be required to avoid two common faults — undue length, 
and ivandering from the subject of the lesson, towards 
which and not from which the introductory remarks ought 
to lead. It is essential that this " key-note " should be 
struck in a lively tone. As we are all aware, by ex- 
perience, the first five minutes of any spoken address will 
usually determine the degree of attention which it will 
gain. It should, therefore, be always a prepared section, 
designed, as shown in the preceding chapters, to arouse 
the interest of the sckolars, and enlist it for the sacred 
theme which is to be unfolded. It may be an anecdote, a 
fable, a quaint proverb, a pithy saying, a wayside observa- 
tion ; but an Introduction is not the place for doctrine or 
precept, — these will follow in due course. 

Class Conversation. — It is in the instruction of the 
class through the various stages of the prepared lesson 
that the teacher's abilities and resources will be most 
severely taxed. To attain the art of skilfully guiding a 
conversation is an invaluable gift — as difficult as that of 
driving " four-in-hand ; " yet, like it, to be reached by 
practice and perseverance, and by these alone. 

The interrogative method should be adhered to with 
full determination to draw out the thoughts of the children 
in words, and so to ascertain the limits of their knowledge 
and their ignorance. In senior classes, particularly of 
girls, it is often difficult and sometimes impossible to 
overcome the silence caused by bashfulness ; but among 
juniors no such reticence exists. The embarrassment felt 
by those who teach children interrogatively is due to the 
number and variety of the answers, and the confusion 
which they often seem to produce ; hence, young teachers 
are tempted to fall back on the didactic method, so as 
to be able to " lecture " without awkward interrup- 
tions. But the gain is more than counterbalanced by the 
loss. A mere talker never knows how much of his talk is 

H 



98 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

received by his hearers ; ana instruction didactically given, 
soothes those it ought to awaken, and leaves in a merely 
passive condition the energies which need to be called into 
activity. 

Random answers are often but the natural results of 
random questions. Queries should be made as definite as 
possible, and then careless answers can be firmly but kindly 
checked. The general line of the questions should be 
arranged beforehand, though, of course, it is not necessary 
to prepare every single question that may be put, — indeed, 
it is impossible, for the scholars' answers constantly suggest 
questions not previously decided on. 

The questioning should be interspersed with instruc- 
tion and comment from the teacher, and pointed inquiries 
be put after each section, or as each important fact or 
doctrine is brought out, to ascertain if the pupils have 
really learned what has been communicated to them. 

A cardinal maxim in all teaching (our readers will 
forgive the repetition of so important a precept) is, Give 
every pupil something to do; and this should be a matter 
of special endeavour in class conversation. " How is this 
to be accomplished ? " will naturally be asked. Not, 
certainly, by the antiquated plan of individual teaching — 
calling up each child in rotation to read, while the others 
amuse themselves as best they can. Nor by adopting the 
simultaneous system, wherein all the scholars read and 
answer in chorus ; since, although this kind of exercise is 
useful in infant classes taught in separate rooms, it is far 
too noisy under ordinary conditions. But while it is a 
mistake to teach our scholars one by one, we should keep 
each before our mind's eye, and intersperse questions and 
remarks addressed to one and another child, among the 
more general interrogations or instructions addressed to 
the whole class. We must try and foster the timid, while 
gently checking the too impulsive ; for, as was said of the 
two Greeks, we shall meet with the li dull horse that needs 



CLASS TEACHING. 99 

the spur," as well as the " restive steed that requires curb 
and rein." No scholar should be unduly patronized and 
none feel neglected, or even overlooked. We can frame 
more difficult questions for the forward, and easier ones 
for the less advanced. Then, such, a personal acquaintance 
with each child as has been enjoined already will enable 
the teacher to provide special portions for different pupils. 
A word of counsel; a familiar and well-understood re- 
ference to affairs at home ; an illustration drawn from 
a particular trade, or favourite amusement, or juvenile 
"hobby," to this scholar or that; a sympathetic or 
encouraging word of interest for any in trouble or 
difficulty ; — these and other simple expedients will augment 
the teachers' influence and facilitate the work of instruc- 
tion. Almost every sacred narrative will be found to 
touch, at some point or other, the everyday life and ex- 
perience of one or more members of a sabbath class, and 
it needs no extraordinary abilities to discover such points 
of contact when the habit of seeking them has been 
acquired. 

Thus the minds of the scholars may be kept in an 
active condition, both by the stimulus of questions, and 
by the sympathy awakened through familiar and personal 
allusions, as the lesson proceeds. 

Adaptation of Bible Scenes and Incidents. — 
In the presentation of Bible truth it must be constantly 
borne in mind, that, while Scripture is wonderfully human 
and many-sided, as just hinted, yet its histories and biogra- 
phies relate to ages long past and to modes of life widely 
differing from our own. To render such scenes vivid and 
real to the mind without sacrificing accuracy will need 
some care and painstaking. It will not do to follow the 
example of some of the old artists, and describe the lives 
of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles as it they belonged 
to the nineteenth century — to dress Adam and Eve, Moses 
and Elijah, in the costumes of Belgravia or Kensington, 



100 THK YOUNG TEACHER. 

and lodge them in suburban villas or English farmhouses. 
Yet they ought to be as real living personages as any 
whom the children of our classes meet in their own town 
or country abodes — not mere shadowy ghosts of the 
distant past. How shall this realization be secured ? 
First, by honestly describing Bible scenes as they actually 
were, whether by words alone or with the help of pictures 
or other illustrations. Secondly, by using the principle of 
analogy, and explaining the oriental and ancient by what- 
ever most resembles it in modern life. Thirdly, by bring- 
ing out the moral qualities and motives, the virtues and 
the faults, which underlie the facts of Biblical, as of all 
other history. The externals of human life are always 
changing, but moral principles are ever the same. When 
these are brought out, Jacob's deceit, Moses' forbearance, 
Samuel's integrity, Peter's self-confidence, are seen to be 
qualities familiar enough even to a child's mind, and hence 
those who manifested them become no longer myths but 
realities.* 

Technical Terms in Religious Teaching. — But 
the Bible has not only its peculiarities of historical colour- 
ing ; it has also its great spiritual doctrines — its revelation 
of good tidings concerning God and things unseen. 
Hence it has also its technical terms — new words, and 
words used in new senses, to express new ideas. By the 
time we have reached adult age we become so familiar 
with most of these Scripture technicalities that we are apt 
to forget that we once had to learn their meaning. And 
so in instructing the young we often make use of terms 
which are wholly unintelligible to them until explained. 
This is one of the commonest errors on the part of theo- 
logical teachers of all grades and titles ; and nowhere do 
they more frequently or more unconsciously mislead their 
hearers. For where the true meaning is not known, the 

* The author's little tract, " The Art of Picturing," will be fouud 
to offer more detailed mots on the subject. 



CLASS TEACHING. 101 

imagination usually supplies an erroneous one — often a 
caricature. Nowhere so much as in religious phraseology 
is the duty of being simple ignored by Sunday school 
teachers. All words and phrases 'peculiar to Scripture or to 
religion should be explained clearlij, and the more important 
terms repeatedly. It was one of the excellences of the 
old catechisms that they defined these terms with pre- 
cision ; though it was one of their defects that the defini- 
tion was couched in language as unintelligible as the thing 
defined, and often much more so ! A sound rule for the 
teacher of children to follow, is to communicate first the 
idea, and then the technical word which expresses it. 

It is to be feared that, through oversight or slovenliness, 
not a few Sunday scholars (even those beyond the age of 
childhood) have been allowed to remain with the vaguest 
of notions, and in some cases no notion at all, of the 
meaning of terms so important as disciple, apostle, judg- 
ment, righteousness, repentance, faith, kingdom of heaven, 
justification, grace, gospel, and many other Bible words and 
phrases, not to speak of current expressions, as " under 
conviction of sin," " coming to Christ," "yielding them- 
selves to the Lord," " giving the heart to Jesus," "having 
the assurance of faith," " setting the face Zionward," and 
so forth. To these maybe added a host of figurative modes 
of speech found chiefly in hymns of the revival and 
evangelistic type, and reaching their climax of extrava- 
gance in the ditties of the Salvation Army. Most of these 
metaphors are strongly sensuous, not to say coarse ; and 
some appear to ordinary minds to border very closely on 
profanity. They tend, however, not merely to diminish 
reverence on the part of those who use them, but are a 
fruitful source of error and misconception, especially with 
children. Hence the teacher should be on his guard 
m gainst the common delusion that the shouting of strongly 
worded choruses is necessarily connected with an intelligent 
comprehension of the sentiments expressed. 



102 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Simple Language. — The language used in the scrip- 
tural instruction of the young should be studiously simple 
— adapted, of course, to the ages and capacities of the 
particular pupils ; yet, on the whole, embodied in plain 
Saxon — homely, without any slang or vulgarisms \ familiar, 
yet not babyish. Long words and grandiose phrases are 
as objectionable as technical terms. The latter cannot be 
avoided, but, as we have pointed out, must be interpreted 
by translation into ordinary language ; the former are to 
be excluded altogether from the Sunday school. 

Aspects of Divine Truth. — A volume might be 
devoted to a topic which we must needs pass over with 
but a few desultory suggestions — "the aspects of Scripture 
truth best adapted to the young." In what light should 
we present to children and youth the Divine character, 
the nature of sin, the atonement, conversion, practical 
religion, heaven and hell, the final judgment, and similar 
momentous topics ? 

Perhaps the safest general answer may be somewhat as 
follows : — We must exhibit these spiritual realities in the 
aspects in which Scripture itself presents them, in the 
particular passages -which we have from time to time 
allotted us for exposition ; for all these aspects are true 
and just. Since, however, we live under the new and 
final dispensation, not the patriarchal or Jewish economy, 
we are permitted, nay, bound, to dwell specially upon New 
Testament aspects of truth, rather than Old, as being both 
higher and milder. Dr. Watts appears to have reached 
this conclusion in the composition of his version of the 
Psalms, if we may judge from the well-known extract so 
often prefixed to modern editions of his devotional poetry. 
He says, " Where the Psalmist describes religion by the 
fear of God, I have often joined faith and love to it. 
Where he speaks of the pardon of sin through the mercies 
of God, I have added the merits of a Saviour. Where 
he talks of sacrificing goats or bullocks, I rather choose to 



CLASS TEACHING. 103 

mention the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God. Where 
he promises abundance of wealth, honour, and long life, 
I have changed some of these typical blessings for grace, 
glory, and life eternal" 

To come, however, to particulars. It is of supreme 
importance that the Divine character be so presented as 
to inspire right feelings in the youthful heart, as well as 
correct ideas in the mind. We cannot hesitate to affirm 
that the utmost prominence should be given to that aspect 
which it is the peculiar glory of the gospel to reveal — 
" Our Father " in Christ Jesus — the God who is all that a 
Father can be to a child, and who so loved us as to give 
His only Son for us. At the same time all the Divine 
attributes, of majesty, holiness, omniscience, omnipresence, 
etc., should have their place in Sunday school teaching. 
Indeed, it is to be feared that a desire to show forth the 
Divine love and compassion towards the ungodly, has led 
to unintentional suppression of correlative truths, as clearly 
enunciated by Christ and His apostles. We need not 
revert to Old Testament language to learn that " all things 
are naked and opened in the eyes of Him with whom we 
have to do," and that it is a fearful thing "to fall," un- 
pardoned, "into the hands of the living God." The most 
scathing denunciations of sin and insincerity fell from lips 
of infinite tenderness, even as we are taught by " His 
cross and passion" the infinite hatred of God to all evil. 
And it is an error which may prove of serious practical 
moment to permit even children to think lightly of sin, 
because of that other truth that " God is love." 

Side by side with the evil of sin, and its grievousness 
and hatefulness in God's sight, the inevitable loss and 
injury which it must always bring to the sinner should be 
plainly enforced. Wrong- doing should be exhibited as a 
real "sowing of wild oats" in a deeper sense than the 
world attaches to that phrase, and also as ingratitude 
towards our best Friend. It will often prove a help in 



104 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

inducing conviction of sin, if we dwell upon the sinful- 
ness of bad tempers and sins of omission — the passions 
which make us unlovely in word and deed, and the good 
which we fail to do. It is scarcely necessary to add that 
a teacher should point especially to youthful faults and 
sins, and such as his own scholars are likely to be charge- 
able with, instead of denouncing transgressions peculiar 
to the mature in years, or the wealthy and influential in 
station. A child cradled in poverty is not likely to be 
led away by worldly pride ; nor does one who has never 
known want need warning against distrust of Providence. 
But let them exchange places, and the counsel may be 
timely enough. Repentance and faith must not be sepa- 
rated. The former must be shown to be, not a mere 
feeling, but a turning away from sin. 

" 'Tis not enough to say, 
We're sorry, and repent," etc., 

is a hymn which, like many others, needs to be graven on 
youthful minds more extensively than modern neglect of 
such memory lessons seems to allow. 

The sacrificial idea of Christ's atonement is not a very 
easy one for children to grasp, unless carefully pictured 
out, because altars and offerings are no longer familiar 
objects, but its essential element — substitution of the inno- 
cent for the guilty — may be illustrated in many ways ; and 
the innocent Saviour should be shown taking our place 
and suffering in our stead, having fulfilled the " righteous- 
ness " of which we all have " come short." 

The manner in which the Lord Jesus is " openly showed 
forth " before the mental eye of childhood is of primary 
importance. The young mind cannot realize the God who 
is a Spirit, either in nature, providence, or grace. It is 
" the only-begotten Son " who has " revealed Him " to 
mortal understandings. " He that hath seen Me, hath 
seen the Father," should be a motto constantly in the 



CLASS TEACHING. 105 

teacher's view. Gazing into His character as manifested 
in His earthly ministry, we learn what God is. 

The Lord Jesus should also be presented as the Friend, 
Guide, Companion, and Example of youth. " He will be 
to us what He was to His disciples ; we can go to Him in 
all our troubles and difficulties ; He will, by His Holy 
Spirit, counsel, direct, strengthen, and comfort us ; He is 
always able, always near, and always willing — ' a Friend 
that sticketh closer than a brother.' " 

Saving faith may be accurately exemplified by the 
'putting of the hand into that of another, trusting Christ 
for forgiveness, and strength, and guidance. 

Religion should be always presented as a happy and 
privileged service. Children delight to do anything for 
those they love, and so the "light and easy yoke" of 
Christian service should be offered to them. At the same 
time, the obligations of a true follower of the Redeemer 
should not be concealed. Self -sacrifice for Christ will not 
be a burdensome duty to those who have learned to love 
and trust Him, however young they may be. 

Heaven and hell are frequent themes of comment. The 
former should be pictured to the young as a place, not of 
enforced rest, but of glorified service and unwearied occu- 
pation. The late Dr. Southon, who met his death by an 
accident after the brief but devoted service in the 
missionary field in South Africa, wrote in his last letter 
home, " Oh ! if He calls me to help Mullens, and Thompson, 
and others gone on before, how gladly will I respond, and 
knock off work here ! " Every pure and innocent enjoy- 
ment here is to have its counterpart in our heavenly home, 
only in a fuller and more exalted form. This idea is im- 
pressively worked out in an American work which attracted 
considerable notice some years back, entitled " The Gates 
Ajar ; " while a theologian of much greater eminence, 
even Luther himself, did not hesitate to exhibit the same 
view of the celestial world, when, in writing to his little 



106 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

son, he tells him of a garden fairer than any on earth, and 
of playthings so curious and beautiful as to make a child's 
heart leap for joy. These he promises to little Hans by- 
and-by, if he is a good boy. 

The New Testament reveals a hell, as well as a heaven ; 
and in terms sufficiently solemn even when we set aside the 
mediaeval notions which have incrusted the actual teaching 
of Scripture. Since the immature minds of children are as 
yet unable fully to realize the evil of sin, — and, indeed, what 
finite understanding can do so ? — it seems most judicious 
to represent the state of future punishment under negative 
rather than positive aspects, as a condition in which sin 
works out its bitter fruits, and shuts out the soul from 
God, and gladness, and the companionship of the good, 
in darkness and banishment. Happily, there is no need to 
make this awful and mysterious topic a prominent theme 
of conversation in a Sunday school class. 

Let us add that all Bible truth should be presented in 
vie^r of the mission and work of the Lord Jesus Christ — 
in the light that streams from the cross and sheds its 
radiance over all the ages. 

Adaptation to Different Temperaments. — 
Throughout his instructions, the teacher must be prepared 
to meet and to make due provision for those diversities of 
temperament which occur in every class, even of young 
children, and which place each individual, so to speak, in 
a different attitude from the rest, in relation to spiritual 
truth. The gospel never comes to two persons in precisely 
the same aspect, and hence, without sacrificing fidelity, 
there is needed a special adaptation of the gospel to each 
particular mind and heart. Each " case," as in medical 
practice, must be studied and dealt with on its own 
grounds. 

One type of juvenile character is the slow, heavy, and 
apparently unimpressible ; at the opposite extreme is the 
lively, volatile, thoughtless, easily affected nature ; and be- 



CLASS TEACHING. 107 

tween these poles lie many intermediate zones of disposition. 
From tlie resources of the inspired volume, we may draw 
instruments of impression and conviction adapted to all 
shades of character and temperament. The Apostle Paul 
will furnish an admirable model for imitation. We find him 
not only varying his modes of presenting Divine truth, 
but also employing different motives to persuade to re- 
pentance, faith, and holiness. He appeals now to gratitude 
and now to fear ; now he exhibits God's authority, " com- 
manding men everywhere to repent," and now to God's 
condescending love, '''beseeching" the rebellious, through 
His "ambassadors," to be ''reconciled" to Himself. He 
exhorts to godliness, at one time in view of the example of 
Christ, at another because of His atoning sacrifice; and 
again, because of the brevity of life, and the certainty of a 
judgment to come. Now he entreats his readers to strive 
to please their Master, and then exhorts them to shun 
any conduct which would bring reproach on Christ and 
Christianity. So, they who teach the gospel to the young 
must seek to find and to touch, by suitable appeals, the 
unseen springs of thought, feeling, and will. 

Manner in Teaching. — We have adverted in a pre- 
vious chapter to the importance and influence of the 
manners of a teacher; manner in teaching is a part of the 
same subject, and will need but few additional remarks. 

That a devout and earnest bearing should accompany 
the delivery of inspired truth, whether in the pulpit, the 
platform, or the class, every reader will admit. Indeed, 
if a Bible lesson has been thoughtfully and prayerfully 
studied, a deep sense of responsibility can ha dly be absent, 
and the outward manner will correspond with the inward 
feelings. And without such convictions it is as useless as it 
is culpable to assume earnestness and solemnity of deport- 
ment ; our insincerity will be detected and despised even 
by the youngest. Anything, therefore, which approaches 
a " professional " or artificial mannerism, must be utterly 



108 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

repudiated ; the candour and simplicity of childhood recoil 
from all such unnatural airs. " Be what thou seemest " 
and "seem what thou art," are precepts never to be 
forgotten, in or out of school. 

A sense of responsibility, however, may in some cases 
induce an excessive gravity of manner, tending to repress 
and repel the innocent liveliness of youth. This is a 
mistake ; a teacher may be bright and cheerful without 
Indulging in unseemly lightness or frivolity. Indeed, a 
funereal bearing, if persisted in, will soon disperse a juvenile 
class, inasmuch as the teacher violates thereby the great 
principle of sympathy. We must try to be childlike with 
children. Dulness is an unpardonable fault, for it misre- 
presents the true cheerfulness of Christian life, and fosters 
the error — too common, alas ! with old as well as young 
people — that religion's "ways" are anything but "ways 
of pleasantness." 

A loving and sympathetic manner, when it is the outcome 
of like dispositions, is among the strongest and most 
enduring of the many ties which bind teacher and scholar 
together. To gain a child's affection is not a difficult task. 
Love evokes love ; and when obtained, places in the 
Christian teacher's hands a mighty influence for good. 
Let it be treasured with unceasing care ; let it be wdsely 
and perseveringly employed ; and as in the past so in the 
future, and far more abundantly, will the response be heard 
from thousands of youthful lips, " Where thou goest I will 
go ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." 



REFERENCES. 

"Manual." Chap. XII. 

" The Art of Picturing." 

Chautauqua Text Books : No. 10, " What is Education ? " 11, " Soc- 
rates." 12, "Pestalozzi." 14, "Horace Mann." 15, " Froebel." 25, 
" Self-education." 10 cents each. 



( iou ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

CLASS MANAGEMENT. 

A Distinction drawn. — The management of a class of 
children is something entirely distinct from the work 
of instruction ; and many teachers, by no means unskilled 
in the latter art, fail of success through a want of aptitude 
in the former. We can scarcely take a critical survey of 
any Sunday school without coming to the conclusion that 
the authority in many of the classes sadly needs strengthen- 
ing, while closer observations would probably suggest 
that skill in government is partly natural and partly 
acquired. There are some persons who appear to possess 
an innate faculty of managing children, which in others 
seems entirely wanting ; gentlemen fail here much more 
than ladies, womanly tact being far more efficacious than 
masculine force ; yet, on the whole, few of our schools are 
as orderly and well disciplined as they might be. 

Cause of Lax Authority. — One of the chief causes 
of this laxity of government lies on the surface. The 
authorities of the Sunday school have to depend mainly on 
the voluntary attendance of the scholars, and they have no 
power to compel obedience like their co-workers in day 
schools. Corporeal punishment is felt to be repugnant to 
the very spirit of a religious institution ; to impose tasks 
as a penalty for misconduct is equally objectionable ; and 
the severest infliction at their disposal is suspension or 
expulsion, either of which may do more harm than good. 



110 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

If we add to this the infrequency of the regular 
engagements as contrasted with the daily attendance at 
secular schools, we shall cease to wonder that the latter 
are far in advance in point of discipline. As, however, 
there are well-ordered Sunday schools and classes, showing 
that improvement is quite practicable, a short chapter is 
here devoted to a consideration of the subject. 

Causes of Disorder. — The causes of disorder are 
numerous and varied. Some are physical, such as impure 
air, uncomfortable seats, awkward positions during teach- 
ing, overcrowding of classes, etc. These were referred to 
in the preceding chapter as obstacles to instruction. Some 
are mental, such as unsuitable matter or style in the 
teaching, rendering it unintelligible or uninteresting. 
Thence arise inattention and restlessness, and the next 
step is confusion and insubordination. This defect has 
also been pointed out in a former page. 

Among the chief moral causes of disorder are, laxity 
in home discipline (or sometimes the opposite extreme, of 
over-severity) ; the example of other scholars' frolicsome- 
ness ; love of mischief ; vanity, and a desire to appear 
conspicuous; self-will; obstinacy of temper; and some- 
times, though not often with mere children, deliberate 
refusal to recognize a teacher's authority. 

Of these, the first is one of the hindrances for which 
neither scholar nor teacher is responsible ; nor can it be 
dealt with except by seeking to gain an influence over 
the parents. The second is a too familiar occurrence in 
Sunday school experience, and one which requires tact 
rather than punishment. The placing of the members of 
a class should not be left to the children themselves, 
unless no ill result follows the arrangement. All " higher" 
and " lower " seats should be repudiated, and all " taking 
of places " for correct answers to questions should be re- 
mitted to the day school. Two persistent little chatter- 
boxes should be kept separate, and any " ringleader " in 



CLASS MANAGEMENT. 11] 

gossip or fidgets be seated next to the teacher, who should 
decline to give reasons for such classification. 

That volatility and love of fan, graduating into mis- 
chievous practical jokes, by which so many children are 
characterized, need gentle and kindly, though resolute, 
treatment. The injury done to a class by the overflowing 
animal spirits of one small boy or girl is vastly more 
serious than the offence committed. The evil must there- 
fore be suppressed, but not dealt with as if it was a delibe- 
rate moral offence. In most cases the child requires more 
occupation ; but if this be not sufficient, he or she should be 
taken in hand privately, and talked to in a quiet and earnest 
manner. Generally such children are affectionate, and 
kind words will " enter in," where a solemn lecture would 
be forgotten as soon as delivered. 

Principles of Class Government. — The other 
sources of disorder are of a much more serious kind, and 
almost every case will need some peculiarity of treatment. 
We can only, therefore, lay down some general principles 
for a teacher's guidance, it being understood that the 
government of elder scholars does not fall within the scope 
of the present work, but will be found treated of in the 
author's larger manual. 

Subordination Essential. — It is of vital importance 
that every teacher, young or old, should be supreme in his 
own class. It is essential to the welfare of the scholars, 
as well as to his own self-respect and comfort, that it 
should be so. Appeals to the higher authority of the 
superintendent are almost invariably recognized as signs 
of weakness, and increase the evils they are meant to cure. 
It has been truly observed that if " the virtue of Paganism 
was strength, the virtue of Christianity is obedience ; " and 
never was the lesson of submission to lawful authority 
more imperatively demanded than in the present genera- 
tion. It is incalculably mischievous to allow a class of 
children, or any one of them, to get the upper hand ; since 



112 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

this is to train them in wrong-doing, while the example 
set is only too contagious. 

Firmness of Will. — Let every reader therefore resolve 
to have order and obedience at any legitimate cost. It is 
certainly possible ; let him resolve to realize it. And to do 
this, it is not needful to assume a despotic air, or sit down 
with an " I-am-not-to-be-trined-with " look of defiance. 
The firm hand should be gloved with velvet. Having first 
sought to gain the sympathy of his little flock, he should 
be ready to check the first signs of wandering and self- 
will. They should be given to understand that obedience 
is the condition of their remaining in the class, and if the 
instruction is made so interesting that attendance is felt 
to be a privilege, a stronger motive to orderly conduct will 
seldom be required. 

Prompt Interference. — While it is sometimes wise 
to shut the eyes to effusions of juvenile fun, provided the 
teaching is not obstructed, yet no act of wilful insubor- 
dination should be passed over. Promptly and firmly, 
though gently, the offender should be checked, and nothing 
else be proceeded with until obedience has been rendered. 
A boy, for example, changes his seat, and takes a place 
which he knows he has no business to occupy. The 
teacher requires him to return. He refuses ; or, perhaps, 
complies for an instant, and then repeats the offence. 
What is the teacher to do ? Certainly not to yield, even 
though the offence be again repeated, in the hope of eluding 
him or tiring him out. The scholar must be made to obey, 
or be sent out of the class. And why ? Not because it 
matters much where a child sits, bat it matters everything 
whether teacher or pupil rules. So with such frequent 
tricks as pushing or pommelling other scholars, snatching 
caps or books, upsetting forms, passing written notes from 
hand to hand, and the more trivial fault of surreptitiously 
eating cakes or sweetmeats during teaching. All these 
sources of disturbance must be noted and stopped, with 



CLASS MANAGEMENT. 113 

vigilant eye and unfaltering hand, the alternative offered 
simply being, " You must desist from these practices, or 
quit the class." The maxim that we should " check the 
beginnings of evil," forcibly applies to order and discipline 
among the young. Much trouble may be prevented by 
vigilance, but many teachers appear to be afflicted with 
chronic defects of vision. They either do not see, or, 
"seeing, they do not perceive," the rising symptoms of 
disorder which to a bystander are patent enough ; and 
only wake to a full consciousness of their existence when 
a continuance of instruction is no longer possible for 
the hurly-burly. A skilful teacher takes care to see and 
know everything that occurs in his class, though he 
may not take notice of all that he perceives. 

Isolate the Offender. — An important principle in 
cases of actual insubordination is to deal with the offender 
alone, and therefore removed from the stimulus to resist- 
ance which the presence of other children affords. A 
letter to those who can read it, or for younger scholars 
a quiet conversation, will generally accomplish far more 
than any public reproof, and is always preferable, provided 
that the offence is not wholly passed over at the time it is 
committed. Even if reproofs are given in secret the rest 
of the class must not be allowed to suppose that the teacher 
did not notice the fault. 

" Rules of the Class." — It is well to have a few well- 
known, though unwritten, " rules " to which the teacher 
can refer in place of a mere utterance of his own will and 
pleasure. " Charlie, you know it is against the rules of our 
class to snatch things from one another. Give Harry his 
cap, and don't let us see you behave so rudely another 
time." So also there should be efforts to create a sort of 
class patriotism — a general desire to maintain a good re- 
putation in the school. Thus, " I w. s sorry to see some of 
you so restless and fidgety during prayer. You reminded 
me of some water-birds, who are always standing first on 

I 



!14 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

one leg and then on the other; and very awkward it 
looks. I am afraid Mr. Jones will call us ' the awkward 
class.' But it is not right to act so when we are speaking 
to God in prayer." 

Motives to Obedience. — Bat the most powerful 
motive to obedience is undoubtedly personal attachment. 
When we have found the key to a child's heart the battle 
of authority is more than half won. Faults will be com- 
mitted, ill tempers appear, and restlessness break forth 
on warm afternoons ; children will be troublesome, play- 
ful, mischievous ; but if they truly love and respect the, 
teacher, there will be no wilful resistance to his authority. 

Physical Force. — Our readers will infer from what 
has been advanced that we condemn, almost wholly, the 
use of physical force in the Sunday school. It may be 
sometimes needful to take an obstinate child by the arm 
and place him or her in the place assigned. But the 
teacher must be "no striker." Boxing and slapping are 
as mischievous as they are unseemly, and a wrestling- 
match, however ignominiously it may end for the pupil, is 
scarcely less so to his conqueror, whose ruffiud temper and 
excited countenance will assuredly lower him in the esteem 
of the spectators, young as well as old. In those rare and 
extreme cases where the teacher's best efforts to win the 
child have failed, an appeal to the superintendent becomes 
inevitable. It should be made, however, not in the humi- 
liating tones which are sometimes thoughtlessly used, "I 
have brought you this scholar, for I can do nothing with, 
him" and so forth ; but rather, " This scholar refuses to 
abide by the rules of the class ; I cannot consent to let her 
remain with me any longer, unless her conduct is com- 
pletely changed." It is to be hoped that this " last 
resource " will seldom be reached in the experience of 
those who read these pages. 

Summary. — To conclude — the discipline of a Sunday 
school class should be founded on sincere affection and 



CLASS MANAGEMENT. 115 

kindly interest, tempered by a wise and judicious firmness. 
There is a happy medium between severity and laxity, 
and this the ruler of children must seek to maintain. A 
humble recognition of the Divine forbearance, and the 
"gentleness " that "makes great," will enable a Christian 
teacher to bear with the frailties and follies of youth ; to 
control the rising indignation and suppress the angry 
word, when his spirit is vexed by waywardness or obstinacy; 
to check with mild dignity the impertinent word or ges- 
ture ; and so to show his young disciples that he has 
himself graduated in the school of Christ. 

REFERENCES. 

"Manual." Chap. XIIT. 
Hart's " Sunday School Idea." Chap. VIII 

Chautauqua Text Book No. 41, " The Teacher before his Class." By 
James L. Hughes. 10c. 

" A Model Superintendent." By H. Clay Trumbull, D.D. $1.00. 
" Normal Outlines for Primary Teachers." 10c. 






116 TH& YOUNG TEACHER. 



CHAPTER VIIT. 

HELPS AND HINDRANCES ENCOURAGEMENTS — CONCLUDING 

HINTS. 

Our Advantages. — Half a century, or even a generation, 
ago, a chapter devoted to a consideration of the " Helps " 
provided for Sunday school teachers would have been a 
very short one indeed. Happily, this is no longer the case. 
Ample assistance is available, and much of it is placed 
within reach of the poorest of workers in the Sunday 
school field. Books, periodicals, pamphlets, notes, lesson- 
papers, and other written aids to efficiency, abound ; while 
oral help, in the form of lectures, addresses, specimen 
lessons, and classes, may be had for the seeking. In fact, 
there is far greater need of a more general desire to learn, 
than of means for supplying the want where it is felt. 
Our references, therefore, will be selective rather than 
comprehensive. 

Biblical Helps. — To begin, then, with boohs. As 
already stated, the Bible and Concordance stand first, 
the latter being but a classification of the former. A good 
Bible, with large clear type, references, and maps, is most 
desirable ; and among the vast variety offered, the Cam- 
bridge " Teacher's Bibles," prepared by the Queen's 
Printers, and those issued with the same special purpose 
by the University of Oxford, are nnrivalled for condensed 
excellence. They are also published at prices to suit all 
teachers. 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 117 

"The Annotated Paragraph Bible," with explanatory notes, 
published by Sheldon & Co. ($6.00), is specially valuable for 
home use. 

Concordances. — None better is to be found than the 
u Cruden," unabridged. Cheap Concordances, " with superflu- 
ous matter left out," are good for nothing. Young's " Ana- 
lytical Concordance " is confusing to those unacquainted with 
Hebrew and Greek, and of little value. 

The " Bible Text Book," published by the American Tract 
Society (90 cts.), is a useful classification of Bible topics. 

Bible Dictionaries. — The best is that of Dr. William 
Smith, in four volumes ($20). There is an abridgment of this 
at $2.00, prepared by Rev. F. N. Peboulet; also a good small 
dictionary at the same price, by Dr. Phillip Schaff. 

For Bible Geography, Whitney's "Handbook" is among 
the best ($2.25). 

Thompson's "Land and Book "is excellent in describing 
Eastern manners and customs, and contains a vast number 
of illustrations drawn from Scripture ; but it is much too expen- 
sive (two volumes, $6.00 each), and publishers ought not to be 
encouraged in putting such prices on books that aid in the study 
of the Bible. Dr. Hurlburt's " Manual of Biblical Geography " 
($4.50) furnishes a great deal of well-arranged information 
about the Bible, with many excellent i)lans, maps, review- 
charts, diagrams, and illustrations. 

The "Bible Educator," in four volumes, is a compendium of 
facts concerning the Bible, its countries, principal characters, 
etc. 

Commentaries. — Of these the number is great and con- 
stantly increasing, and the young student is often perplexed in 
his efforts to select. Of older writers, Matthew Henry holds 
the first place. He wrote when Biblical criticism was in its in- 
fancy, but for quaint suggest iveness, spirituality, and endless 
variety of illustration, he is unsurpassed. A new edition, com- 
plete, has been issued by Carter Bros., in three large quarto 
volumes, for $10.00. Among modern commentators, Barnes 
and Bush are favorites with many teachers, but probably the 
most useful of cheap commentaries on the whole Bible is that 



118 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

of Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown, of which there is an edition 
in four volumes, at $6.00 for the set. 

" The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges " is in course 
of publication in separate portions, one volume being devoted 
to each book. 

The commentaries on the Gospels, Acts, and Romans, by 
Dr. Lyman Abbott, are among the choicest. Dr. Meredith on 
Mark affords to teachers a good illustration of successful treat- 
ment of one of the Gospels in separate lessons. Eugene 
Stock's " Notes " on the Gospels and Acts are excellent con- 
densed helps. 

Among Scripture biographies the teacher can hardly afford 
to be without Stalker's lives of Christ and of Paul. Of larger 
works on the same subjects, Geikie's " Life of Christ " is most 
picturesque, and Edersheim's, perhaps, most full of informa- 
tion. Conybeare and Howson's " Life of Paul " is the standard 
work on that subject. Dr. William Taylor's lectures on Moses, 
Elijah, David, Paul, and Peter, are suggestive. 

Stanley's "Lectures on the Jewish Church" (three vol- 
umes, $6.00), Smith's " Old Testament and New Testament 
History" (two volumes, $1.25 each), and Edersheim's "Bible 
History " (five volumes, $1.25 each), contain a great fund of 
information. Geikie's " Studies in the Old and New Testa- 
ments," and his " Hours with the Bible," are to be found in 
many teachers' libraries. If churches would add to their Sun- 
day-school libraries a collection of books such as we have 
named, and provide rooms where they might be consulted by 
teachers, lar<re returns for their investments would come to 
them in the shape of better understanding and teaching of the 
word of Gocl. 

Periodicals. — The general use of the International Les- 
sons has created a literature, cheap, abundant, with marked 
and varied excellences, throwing more light on the meaning 
of the Bible than would have been supposed possible a quarter 
of a century ago. A few cents each week will secure the 
choicest gleanings on the lesson texts, from the more expensive 
and permanent publications, together with the best suggestions 
concerning methods of studying and teaching them, from the 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 119 

best teachers and scholars. Among these publications the 
Sunday- School Times is the best and cheapest weekly paper. 
Most of the larger denominations sustain a monthly magazine 
for teachers. Among them we mention the Pilgrim Teacher, 
Sunday-School Journal, Westminster, Baptist, and Augsburg 
Teachers. Peloubet's " Notes," a bound volume of selected 
comments on the lessons for each year, has gained a wide repu- 
tation for excellence. jSTo wise young teacher will ignore the 
printed helps from which he may learn so much. 

A few words may appropriately be inserted here concerning 
books which will aid teachers to greater success in the general 
mode of teaching. 

On General Management a standard work is Hart's " Sun- 
day-school Idea " (pp. 414, price $1.50). It treats of the prin- 
ciples which underlie the Sunday school, and touches on almost 
every subject connected with its object, organization, methods, 
and capabilities. Pardee's " Sabbath-school Index " is of the 
same general character, but less comprehensive. Vincent's 
"The School and its Officers " (65 cts.) was written mainly for 
young ministers, but will furnish valuable hints to all interested 
in the Sunday school. Trumbull's " Model Superintendent " 
($1.00) is a sketch of the life and work of Henry P. Haven, who 
was a Sunday-school superintendent from the time he was 
twenty-one years old till he died. He seems to have thought 
out nearly all the methods which have since become popular 
in Sunday-school work. 

Of books on Teaching, Todd's "Sunday-school Teacher" 
($1.50), and Packard's " Teacher Taught," though among the 
oldest works on this subject, are still valuable. The Presby- 
terian and Baptist Publication Societies have each issued a 
manual of considerable length on " Evidences of the Divine 
Origin of the Bible, its Interpretation, and Contents, and How 
to Teach it." On the last topic the Baptist manual is the most 
valuable. Trumbull's "Teaching and Teachers" ($1.50) is so 
full of valuable suggestions that no teacher can afford to be 
without it. 

The Methodist Book Concern, under the direction of Dr. Vin- 
cent, has issued a series of Chautauqua text-books, about fifty 



120 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

in number (10 cts. each), many of which are on subjects con- 
nected with the Sunday school, and contain the fruits of much 
study in brief compass. We mention under this head No. 37, 
" Assembly Normal Outlines;" No. 39, "The Sunday-school 
Normal Class," — both by Dr. Vincent. No. 40, " Normal 
Outlines for Primary Teachers," by Mrs. W. F. Crafts, and 
" The Teacher before his Class," by James L. Hughes. Fitch's 
" Lectures on Attention, Questioning, and Memory " (15 cts. 
each), are excellent. 

On the Study of the Bible, there are three books of the 
Normal Outline series: Hurst's "Outline of Bible History " (50 
cts.), Hunger's " Chronology of Bible History " (40 cts.), and 
Freeman's " Short History of the English Bible " (50 cts.). Of 
the Chautauqua Text-books, No. 1, "Biblical Exploration; or, 
How to Study the Bible;" No. 3, "Bible Studies for little 
People;" No. 19, " Text-book of Books;" No. 28, "Manners 
and Customs of Bible Times; " No. 36, "Assembly Bible Out- 
lines; " No. 49, "Palestine; " No. 44, "Jerusalem;" and No. 
26, " The Tabernacle." 

Of Historical works, Candler's " History of Sunday 
schools " (75 cts.), is good as far as it goes. " Robert Raikes," 
by Alfred Gregory (pp. 209, price 75 cts.), conveys a good deal 
of information on the establishment of Sunday schools. Bul- 
lard's "Fifty years with the Sabbath schools" ($1.25), and 
Tyng's " Forty Years' Experience in Sunday schools" ($1.00), 
while they are rather autobiographies than histories, contain 
much information of historical value. 

For any books mentioned in this list, send orders to Congre- 
gational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, cor. Beacon 
and Somerset St., Boston. 

Only let one rule be steadily borne in mind. Whatever 
books or periodicals we consult, nothing can fill the place of 
earnest, individual study of the lesson from week to week. 
Balusters are very useful to rest the hand upon as guides in 
descending a staircase, but riding on balusters is a dangerous 
experiment. Some young teachers "ride on " printed helps; 
who can wonder that they come heavily to tjie ground as a con- 
sequence of such misuse? 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 121 

Pictures — a Suggestion. — Many of the above-men- 
tioned works are embellished with pictorial illustrations, 
as auxiliaries to verbal description, and exemplify the mar- 
vellous progress of the engraver's art during the past 
quarter of a century. But still further use may be made 
of the same class of helps by a teacher whose " eyes," like 
" the wise man's," " are in his head." The constantly 
widening intercourse of Western nations with the East, 
and the increased interest taken in all manners connected 
with Palestine and the surrounding kingdoms, whether 
ancient or modern, result in the introduction of woodcuts, 
topographical, archaeological, and scientific, illustrative of 
sacred history, into periodicals of a purely secular class. 
These should be made available for Sunday school purposes. 
Collected and preserved, they may be pasted into scrap- 
books of convenient size, and if the texts which they bear 
upon are written below them, an Illustrated Bible of a 
peculiarly interesting and instructive character may easily 
be compiled. Such a book occasionally introduced into the 
class, or opened and commented on during a social evening, 
would prove " a thing of beauty and a joy for ever." 

A Teacher's Museum. — The suggestion is not a new 
or original one, but a hint has been thrown out which 
might be made more fruitful than at first sight appears. 
It is that each Sunday school teacher should try to form a 
little "Biblical Museum" of his own. " What would it 
contain?" and "How could objects be procured?" are 
questions which would naturally be asked in reply. To 
this it might be rejoined, that the products of the East 
are continually making their way into English markets; 
and, moreover, that many of the plants named in Scripture 
grow wild in this country or are cultivated in gardens. 
Suppose, for example, that the Sunday lesson is on the 
"Visit of the Wise Men to the Infant Saviour;" how 
mnch it would interest a class of children to see and 
handle a piece of " frankincense " or a sprig of " myrrh ! " 



122 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Yet it would not be difficult to procure specimens of both 
of these. So if the story of " Esau and Jacob " be the 
subject, a few real lentils would give point and interest to 
the lesson. In like manner the history of " Joseph in 
Egypt " may be illustrated by a real specimen of Egyptian 
wheat — a product frequently seen in this country. And it 
is surprising how many objects of interest will turn up 
when once we set ourselves to seek for them. 

Classes. — Glasses for the instruction of Sunday school 
teachers in the matter or methods of their work are the 
growth of the last thirty or thirty-five years. Of these 
"Preparation" classes are the oldest, and "Normal" or 
" Introductory " classes the most recent, while " Training " 
classes occupy an intermediate place. It is well that the 
reader should understand what these terms represent. 
A " Preparation " class is one in which teachers meet 
together for mutual study of a given passage of Scripture 
— generally one of the next Sunday's lessons. In the 
" Training " class, lectures and specimen lessons are 
given for the purpose of showing how to teach a class of 
Sunday scholars. A " Normal " class is designed, primarily, 
to train those who intend to become teachers for the work 
to which they are looking forward, giving them informa- 
tion on what to teach as well as how to teach it. Such 
classes are held in different parts of London and the pro- 
vinces, either independently or under the auspices of the 
Sunday School Union, during the winter months ; and our 
readers are earnestly recommended to avail themselves of 
such help whenever they find it within their reach. The 
course of study will be found to coincide, more or less 
closely, with the subjects contained in the present little 
volume, and the other issues of the series, while mutual 
study will afford both pleasure and encouragement. 

Home Visitation and Personal Intercourse. — 
Reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the value 
and importance of personal intercourse between teacher 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 123 

and scholar, as a means of gaining both insight into cha- 
racter and influence over conduct. Home Visitation was 
specified ; but this is only one form, though perhaps the 
chief, in which contact may be secured. A knowledge of 
each scholar in the sabbath class will soon suggest modes 
of friendly interchange and individual help ; and this 
again will indicate various directions where united asso- 
ciation may prove pleasurable and beneficial. 

To take a few examples. Two or three home visits, or 
conversations on the road to or from school, will not only 
bring to light details of daily occupation, but also disclose 
a boy's or girl's particular tastes and aspirations : these 
may tend towards mechanics, chemistry, or natural 
history ; boating, cricket, tennis, or chess-playing ; litera- 
ture, elocution, or music. Here at once a field opens 
for kind interest and practical assistance. The loan of a 
book, pamphlet, magazine, or musical composition ; the 
gift or exhibition of specimens; the communication of new 
facts gleaned from time to time by observant sympathy ; 
and even the mere inquiry about progress made, or the 
encouraging commendation of earnest efforts to excel — 
such acts, while they broaden the teacher's comprehension 
of his pupils' characters and habits, furnish him with new 
claims on their respect and new ties to bind their affections 
to himself. 

Where a teacher can not only manifest sympathy for, 
but personally join in, his scholars' amusements, whether 
indoors or out, like benefits will be conferred on all con- 
cerned. The presence of an elder will check irregularities, 
whether of temper or outward wrong-doing ; while it will 
silently but not less powerfully convince light-hearted 
children that it is not only possible to be merry and wise, 
but that the mirth which is dissociated from folly and 
irreligion is the heartiest and most genuine of all. We 
are not unmindful of the fact that many young teachers 
are unable to show hospitality to their sabbath pupils, 



124 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

and where this is the case individual interviews must 
suffice. But the idea that young folks require elaborate 
entertainment is quite erroneous, and should never stand 
in the way of an invitation when it can be given. Very 
few teachers have resources so limited as to be unequal to 
the ensuring of an evening's enjoyment to half a dozen 
boys or girls. The "Illustrated Bible" above recom- 
mended would of itself be a source of lively interest on 
such an occasion. 

Co-operation. — In this, as in other efforts for the 
benefit of his own class, a teacher may often be guided 
and assisted by the co-operation of one or more fellow- 
workers ; while there are some in which the school com- 
mittee or officers may deem it advisable to secure the 
action of the whole body of teachers. It is not wise to 
work in secret, but rather freely to interchange ideas and 
suggestions with our associates. It is well to know what 
has been tried already, and what is, or seems to be, new 
and original ; only thus can we hope to avoid repeating 
the mistakes and incurring the failures of our predecessors. 
And it is not only an error, but a fault, to lose the oppor- 
tunity of consulting those who are more skilful and ex- 
perienced than ourselves. 

Hindrances. — Having dwelt thus upon the manifold 
helps placed within the reach of a young Sunday school 
worker of the present generation, we should be wanting 
in candour did we suppress or pass over the unquestion- 
able truth that he must also be prepared to encounter 
Hindrances in his chosen field of labour. We would em- 
phasize the last word. Sunday school teaching, like all 
other teaching that is worth the name, is a labour — a toil, 
not a pastime or a recreation. To engage in it with the 
idea of treading a flowery path, or winning admiration or 
applause, or gratifying taste by cultivating a sort of 
religious fine art, is as delusive as it is culpable. Upon 
every enterprise undertaken for the glory of God and the 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 125 

extension of His kingdom on earth, the stamp of the cross 
is deeply impressed; and there are seasons in the ex- 
perience of every true labourer when " the burden and 
heat of the day " weigh down both body and mind; when 
the flesh grows weary, and the heart is sick and sad; 
when the confession is wrung from the lips, " I have 
laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought." 
And although the hindrances are fewer, and the toil is 
lighter, when our sphere is among the young and im- 
pressible, instead of the old and hardened, yet a few weeks 
of practised experience will suffice to prove that even here 
" there are many adversaries." 

Children's Faults. — The faults and sins of early life 
— the volatility, the -thoughtlessness, the self-will and 
impatience of control, the untruthfulness, the weakness of 
moral and spiritual perception, and so on — constitute a 
class of obstacles which every faithful educator must 
resolutely face, and with which he should, in dependence 
on Divine aid, prepare to grapple. Let him never forget 
that there is a corrective as well as a directive element in 
his work, and he must prepare to be a physician as well 
as a guide. The human heart, whether in early or in later 
stages, turns away from God, and neither responds to His 
claims, nor acknowledges His authority. The will of self, 
not the will of God, is the law of unregenerated humanity, 
and from this root of self-will spring the bitter fruits of 
evil tempers and dispositions — only too conspicuous even 
in childhood's sunny morning. 

In seeking to rectify what is thus wrong and mis- 
chievous, conflict and opposition must needs arise. Hence 
the argument for commencing the work of religious train- 
ing as early as possible. The shallow plea that children 
" should not be biased " is met by the obvious fact that 
they are biased already, and that towards evil, not good. 
To supplant that bias by a mightier tendency is a work 
which cannot be begun too soon. 



126 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Moral Hindrances. — To those faults, so common in 
Sunday schools which tend to disorder and anarchy in 
the class, such as restlessness, volatility, and impatience of 
control, reference has been made in the preceding chapter. 
There are others, however, which often startle, and as 
often discourage, the pious and devoted teacher of the 
young ; and some of these it may be well briefly to consider. 

At the close of Chapter VI. some remarks were offered 
on types of natural temperament as affecting the attitude 
of the mind and heart towards the claims of the gospel, 
and the consequent necessity for the specific treatment of 
each individual case. We have now to observe that almost 
every type of moral character presents some peculiar hin- 
drance (though varying widely in degree) to the reception 
and acknowledgment of the Divine claim to obedience. 
It is obviously so with the heavy, stolid, apparently unim- 
pressionable temperament on which sacred truth falls like 
good seed on the beaten path. But it is so, too, though 
less obviously, with the susceptible, lively, emotional nature; 
for here impressions, though easily made, are as easily 
effaced, like footprints on a sandy shore, which the first 
wave blots out as though they had never been. Easily 
influenced for good means easily influenced for evil. The 
former may harden into obstinate indifference, the latter 
may fly off into utter thoughtlessness of mind and fickle- 
ness of character. 

Slow Scholars. — In dealing with the first class, much 
patience and gentleness are demanded. The intellectually 
slow need waking up from their torpor, as hibernating 
animals are aroused in springtime by the warmth and 
brightness of sunshine. They need lively instruction and 
sympathetic kindliness, so that they may first perceive 
and then admire the beauty of religion. The morally slow 
must not be driven towards Christ — indeed, they cannot — 
but drawn towards Him, by presenting His graciousness 
and loving compassion towards children. 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 127 

Quick Scholars.— As to the second class, the quick 
and volatile pupils, we mast distinguish between the im- 
pressible, whose emotions are as changeful and unstable 
as the clouds, and the sensitive and timid, who seem to 
lack fibre and firmness. The former need a strong hand, 
and to be taught even in early years the solemnity of life, 
the authority of law, and the reality of things unseen. 
They must see that we are in earnest, that we feel strongly, 
and that, while sympathizing sincerely in all their sunny, 
light-hearted glee, we are supremely anxious that they 
should even now yield to Christ's claims on their love 
and obedience. They must learn that indifference to those 
claims, however due to mere thoughtlessness and frivolity, 
is a sin in God's sight, and a grief and disRppointment to 
us ; and this should be pointed out both privately and in 
the more public instructions of the Lord's day. 

Sensitive Children. — Sensitive and timid children 
need strengthening and encouraging, lest they should grow 
up weakly and stunted in character. They require " the 
wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ " as their 
spiritual food, rather than emotional and exciting hymns, 
in order that they may not shrink back from trusting and 
confessing Him. 

Conceit. — Pride and unbelief as motives for resisting 
the gospel are not sins of childhood, but belong to a later 
stage. Nevertheless, vanity and conceit are sometimes 
manifest enough in little people, and cannot but be a 
hindrance to the teacher's work. They should be kindly 
but pointedly dealt with, not by scolding or denunciation, 
much less by satire or ridicule, but indirectly, by pointing 
out the folly and sin of being proud of what we owe to 
the labour or the love of others, or to the undeserved mercy 
of our Father in heaven. 

Untruthfulness is one of the darkest of juvenile faults. 
"Children," says one writer, " are habitual liars," — too 
sweeping an assertion yet lamentably approaching the 



128 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

actual fact, as most schoolmasters and schoolmistresses 
could testify. Yet this discreditable tendency is compara- 
tively seldom due to either malice or a preference for false- 
hoods. There is usually some inducement, more or less 
influential, to deviate from the truth, and the moral 
strength to resist the temptation is wanting. Such is the 
simple history of most juvenile falsehoods. Sunday school 
teachers must deal, more frequently and more severely 
than they have been accustomed to do, with this crying 
evil, which infests the family and the workshop as well as 
the school, and permeates all classes of society. English- 
men are seemingly losing sight of the good old-fashioned 
maxim that a lie is a mean, contemptible, inexcusable 
thing ; and the sooner our children are re-educated in that 
sound doctrine the better for them and for the nation to 
which they belong. There are texts and illustrations 
enough in Scripture to point our instructions on this head, 
and the utter incompatibility of falsehood and godliness 
should be exhibited, not once or at rare intervals, but 
frequently, and with all the force of language which the 
teacher can command. 

External Hindrances. — There are other hindrances 
to the work of the Sunday school for which the children 
themselves are in a less degree or not at all responsible. 
For example, Irregularity of attendance, and consequent 
diminution of the opportunities of instruction ; frequent 
change of residence; poverty, and its social temptations ; 
unfavourable domestic conditions, whether mere formal reli- 
gion, indifference, or hostility on the part of the parents ; 
to which may be added, though more applicable to a 
somewhat later stage, improper companionship and impure 
literature. Most of these obstacles can be dealt with only 
by indirect means, such as are employed to a greater or less 
extent in connection with most of our Sunday schools, and 
which scarcely lie within the province of the individual 
teacher. But the latter may exert a powerful and salutary 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 129 

influence over the reading and the companions of his 
scholars, if he will but take the trouble to learn what they 
really are, remembering that these evils can be remedied 
only by replacing them by something better of the same 
kind. Give the children better reading, introduce them to 
other and more suitable companions, and we may hope 
that a blessing will attend our efforts to supplant the evil 
by the good. In thousands of instances Bunyan's parable 
of the burning fire is reversed in Sunday school experience. 
The oil of Divine truth is dropped upon the flame ; but the 
fire is quenched, or at least suppressed, by the foul waters 
which books, periodicals, and street associations are con- 
tinually pouring into it. We must supply an antidote, and 
seek to correct the mental and moral appetite. 

Encouragements of the Sunday School Worker. 
— No doubt it would be possible to add to the list of 
Sunday school hindrances ; but even with such additions 
the fact would still remain indisputable that work for 
God among the young is the most hopeful and encouraging 
of all spheres of religious effort into which His Church 
has been called. 

Impressibility of Childhood. — Inferior only to 
parental education, it offers the greatest advantages with 
the fewest drawbacks. Under whatever figure we may 
view Christian instruction and training, its vantage-ground 
must be found in child -culture. Are we builders of cha- 
racter ? The materials are close at hand, and not yet 
mutilated by the rude touch of vice or crime. Are we 
soul-gardeners ? The ground is almost clear of weeds, and 
the saplings may be bent to our will. Is our art compar- 
able to that of the potter, the sculptor, or the painter ? 
The plastic clay is responsive to our fingers, the marble is 
fresh from the quarry, the canvas is yet undisfigured by 
other hands. Are we musicians ? Though the harp be 
unstrung, we have a key by which it may be tuned to the 
undying harmonies of truth and righteousness. 

H 



130 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

Again, in childhood the affections guide the whole 
nature ; they are the rudder which controls the course of 
thought and will. Those affections it is not difficult to 
gain ; the love and trust of a child are soon yielded to kind- 
ness and sympathy, and the citadel of character is won. 

Parental Sympathy. — The parents, too, of our 
scholars, in the large majority of cases, cherish a degree of 
respect for us and of appreciation of our work and its 
objects, which secures us a welcome, more or less cordial, 
whenever we visit their abodes, and, indirectly, a certain 
amount of co-operation and assistance. Very rarely indeed 
will a father or mother feel anything but goodwill towards 
the friend who takes so kindly an interest in Tom or 
Harry, Emma or Mary Jane ; and the school, with its 
executive, comes in for a share of esteem, if not of grateful 
recognition. The lower aspects of Sunday school effort 
are appreciated even where there is no true understanding 
of the higher. 

Public Sentiment. — Public opinion is also in favour 
of the enterprise. Its philanthropic and educational influ- 
ence is admitted and approved, even if its spirituality is 
regarded by only a comparative few. We may not place 
this among our highest sources of encouragement, yet it is 
a factor not to be overlooked. 

Benefit to the Teacher. — Of the good accomplished 
through the instrumentality of Sunday schools, the benefits 
conferred upon the teachers themselves form no small or 
unimportant part. The well-worn quotation — 

" In teaching others we ourselves are taught," 

represents very imperfectly the reflex influences of this 
work. It is most true that in imparting information of 
any kind the facts are impressed upon the mind of the 
giver as much as or more than on that of the receiver. 
But the necessity of engaging in more or less systematic 
study of Holy Scripture, and of books bearing on Biblical 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. *^1 

topics, is an inestimable blessing to a young Christian. 
Every one knows the advantage of reading with a definite 
object and on a definite plan, in place of mere discursive 
perusal of different books. This a good lesson series of 
Bible subjects effectually supplies. Then, also, the know- 
ledge acquired has to be arranged and adapted, the mental 
faculties of judgment and reflection are trained, as esti- 
mating the relations of one truth to another, and their 
application to daily life and conduct. Observation is 
demanded for the gathering of illustrations of sacred doc- 
trine, and the imagination is exercised upon those analogies 
of natural and revealed truth which are so attractive and 
enlightening to young and opening minds. 

Beyond and above these intellectual benefits, the 
teacher's sympathies are both broadened and softened by 
contact with childhood and youth ; while, best of all, his 
own spiritual life can hardly fail to be stimulated and 
strengthened by seeking to lead others to the Fount of 
all blessedness. Such considerations should elevate our 
estimate of the great and glorious enterprise in which we 
are permitted to bear a part, and encourage us to a fuller 
consecration to our ministry. 

Motives to Consecration. — Many and powerful are 
the motives which urge us to such self-devotion. On all 
hands it is admitted by statesmen, philanthropists, and 
educators, that the Sunday school was never so needful to 
the well-being of our country, or so pressing in its claims 
upon the sanctified talent of Christ's disciples, than in the 
present age. The soil is rich in moral and spiritual pos- 
sibilities, as yet unrealized. Young people flock into our 
Sunday schools to an extent which far more than keeps 
pace with the increase of population. There is no need to 
cry " More scholars," but the cry for " more teachers who 
are efficient instructors as well as pious Christians," grows 
more urgent and more plaintive every year. We gain the 
children, but do we heep them ? Do we store their under- 



132 THE YOUNG TEACHER. 

standings with divine truth in so intelligent and winning 
a manner as to bind them by the golden cords of respect 
and affection to us and to our schools ? The fields are 
white unto harvest, but in comparison with their needs 
the labourers are but few. 

And are these not motives which should animate every 
young teacher to " attempt great things for God " ? He 
will not lack companions in this hallowed toil. The sun 
never sets on the Sunday school teacher's work , when 
the voice of instruction is silent, thousands and tens of 
thousands of busy minds and fervent hearts are studying, 
planning, praying, on behalf of the young ones for whom 
the Saviour died. But there is a higher and nobler fellow- 
ship even than this. Every work for God is a work with 
God. Our Master has not left us alone. It is His to stand 
by our side in every toil and conflict for His cause and 
kingdom ; His to quicken the intellect and cheer the 
heart ; His to hold us as we stand, and to raise us when 
we fall ; His to comfort us in our failures and to show us 
the secret of our successes ; His to give us patience and 
meekness towards the weak and wayward, the ignorant 
and unruly ; His to set before us His own glorious ex- 
ample, to bestow present encouragements, and to lift our 
weary eyes to the full recompense of reward. Such 
rewards, both present and future, His infinite merit has 
purchased for the lowliest worker in His cause. " When 
Mary anointed our Lord's feet, the act was transient ; it 
was done * for His burial ; ' the holy feet which she anointed 
ceased soon after to walk on earth. Yet He declared that 
' wheresoever His gospel was preached in the whole world,' 
that act should also be ' told as a memorial of her.' So 
has it ever been with what has been given to God, albeit 
blindly and erringly. While all other things have perished, 
this has endured" 

Not less fragrant in His esteem, not less permanent in 
their issues, are the humble deeds wrought for Him in the 



HELPS AND HINDRANCES, ETC. 133 

obscurity of many a Sunday school class ; not less gracious 
His approval, not less glorious their reward. 

Lay no faltering hand, young Christian, to this great 
enterprise ; yield to it no divided heart. Consecrate all 
your powers unreservedly to it, or reverently seek some 
more congenial sphere of labour. Yet ask again, on bended 
knees, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " And if 
the answer be, " Feed My lambs," go — go in His name ; 
go in His strength ; go in conquering faith and brightening 
hope, and " seek and save that which was lost." 

REFERENCES. 

« The Sunday School Teacher's Manual." By W. H. Groser. $1.25. 
" The Infant Sunday School." Mrs. Knox. 75c. 
" Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools." By Rev. Asa Bullard. 
91.26. 

" The Sunday School Library." By Rev. A. E. Dunning. 60c. 
" An Hour with Miss Streator." By Pansy. 6c. 



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THE BOY LOLLARD. By the late Rev. Frederick A. Reed, author of the Com- 
panion Book, " Twin Heroes." Postpaid, $1.50. 

THE FORGED LETTER, AND OTHER STORIES. By Sarah F. Brigham. 

Postpaid, $1.00. 

NED HARWOOD'S DELIGHT, OR THE HOMES OF THE GIANTS. By 

Mrs. S. G. Knight. Postpaid, $1.00. 

THE ACADEMY BOYS IN CAMP. By Mrs. S. F. Spear. Postpaid, $1.25. 

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY. Indispensable to Superintendents and Library 
Committees. By Rev. A. E. Dunning. Postpaid, 60 cents. 

HOW TO BUILD A CHURCH. By Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D. Postpaid, 50 cents. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF Rev. ENOCH POND, D.D. Postpaid, $1.00. 

CHRIST PREACHING TO SPIRITS IN PRISON. By Rev. William De Loss 
Love. Postpaid, 90 cents. 

THE DEACON'S WEEK. By Rose Terry Cooke. A very bright little ske'ch, 
illustrating the relation of Prayer and Works. Just the thing t j put in the hand of every 
Church Member. Price 3 cents, postpaid. 

THE BIBLE PLAN OF SALVATION. Questions and Answers. New edition. 
Just published. Price 3 cents. The same in German. Price 3 cents. 

CONGREGATIONAL MANUAL. In German. Price 10 cents. 

FUSS BUDGET'S FOLKS. By Anna F. Burnham. Postpaid, $1.00. 

THE LAST O' THE LUSCOMBS. By Helen Pearson Barnard. Postpaid, $1.25. 

THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. By Prof. George F. Wright, 
of Oberlin, author of "An Inquiry concerning the Relation of Death to Probation." 
"Logic of Christian Evidences," " Studies in Science and Religion," etc. Pages 241. 
Price $1.25. 

ON HORSEBACK IN CAPPADOCIA. Bv Rev. John O. Barrows, late missionary 
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THE HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE FIRST ELEVEN CHAPTERS OF 

GENESIS. By Rev. D. N. Beach. Price 75 cents. 

WELL SPRING SERIES. For Primary Department. 4 vols. By Anna F. Burnham. 

Per set, $1 00. 

DUXBERRY DOINGS. By Miss Caroline B. Le Row. Price, $1.25. 

STANDFASTS JOURNEY, OR THE PATH OF THE JUST. By Julia McNair 
Wright. 

TWO HOMES, OR WITHOUT AND WITHIN THE GATES. By Mrs. S. A. F. 

Herbert. 

DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS TO THE CHURCH. By Rev. Geo. R. Leavitt. 

An excellent souvenir to be given to new converts when they are received into the Church. 
Price 5 cents. Per hundred, $3.50. 

Congregational S. S. and Publishing Society, Boston. 

GEO. P. SMITH, Agent. 



THE 



DIKIP AUTHORITY OF ip BIBLE. 

BY G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, 

PROFESSOR IN OBERLIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 

Pp.241. 5}£X 3 ^ inches. Boston: Congregational Sunday-School 
and Publishing Society. 1884. $1.25. 



Professor Wright has done a timely and helpful work in this 
compact volume. The title sufficiently indicates the purpose, 
namely, to set forth the authority, and that the Divine authority, of 
the Bible, that is, of our canonical Scriptures as a whole. This 
involves the brief presentation of the subsidiary topics of Inspira- 
tion, the Canon, the true method of Interpretation, the Difficulties 
and Objections ; and some considerations of textual criticism, of 
alleged discrepancies, of Old Testament quotations, of the harmony 
of the Bible with science, and of the less directly spiritual portions 
of the book — all properly subordinate to the main discussion. 

The argument is inductive, proceeding by an appeal to facts, 
and not from preconceived theories. It is also clear and concise, 
establishing its positions, and illustrating them by specimen instan- 
ces, rather than by exhaustive and therefore exhausting enumer- 
ation. The main postulate from which the writer proceeds is "the 
acknowledged supernatural character of Christianity," in which 
"the stupendous miracle of the resurrection of Christ " is "the 
corner-stone" of our historic faith, easily supporting whatever 
other supernatural claims and utterances can be shown to have 
been put forth by that wonderful personage. ... It is a very 
clear, though succinct, statement of the valid reasons why we re- 
ceive our present Scriptures, and receive them as a final authority 
on all matters on which they profess authoritatively to speak. . 
. . . The volume is brief enough and clear enough to be readily 
followed, and will at the present time, we are persuaded, provp 
highly useful and helpful. — Bib. Sac, Oct., 1884. 



SEND ORDERS TO 

CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY, BOSTON, 

GEO. P. SMITH, Agent. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY. 

By Rev. A. E. DUNNING. 

Describes its History, Object, Authorship, Selection, Use, Distri- 
bution, and Power. Indispensable to Superintendents 
and Library Committees. It contains a IJist 
of Choice Books. 



" There is no better book on the subject of forming and managing a Sunday- 
school library (and the directions for the purchase of books will be profitable for 
booksellers, who are called upon to answer so many questions). It should be com- 
mended to all interested in this important subject." — The Publishers' Weekly. 

" What the Rev. A. E. Dunning does not know about Sunday-school libraries is 
hardly worth knowing. His book is the fruit of practical experience, and answers 
hundreds of questions which are asked by those in charge of Sunday schools, as to the 
selection of books, their use, their distribution, their relation to the proper work of 
the school." — Boston Advertiser. 

" Should be in the hands of every one connected with the selection and manage- 
ment of Sunday-school libraries. His suggestions on the authorship and selection of 
Sunday-school books are not only just, but eminently practical." — JV. E. Journal of 
Education. 

1 It costs but 60 cents. It will save five times its cost in the help it gives." — Our 
Church Work. 

" There is hardly any department of Sunday-school work which calls for a better 
knowledge of ways of working and a larger endowment of common sense in order to 
its successful management than the Sunday-school library. For the benefit of those 
who need instruction in this department, the Rev. A. E. Dunning, Sunday-school Sec- 
retary, has prepared a book which contains a brief history of the origin and develop- 
ment of the Sunday-school library : chapters on its sphere of usefulness and its 
power ; and plans, briefly stated, of collecting books, distributing them, and making 
them work. There is also a special chapter, giving hints for those who would write 
Sunday-school books. Mr. Dunning is not one who believes in general lists of Sun- 
day-school books, selected for the use of all schools, and without reference to the 
special needs of any ; but for the benefit of those who wish a suggestive list, he adds 
a topical catalogue of books in which each work mentioned is classified under a gen- 
eral head, and its special contents and characteristics are briefly indicated in a note. 
A basis is thus provided for intelligent choice on the part of librarians and commit- 
tees." — Sunday-School Times. 

"A thoughtful and practical exposition of a very important element in Sunday- 
school culture. Full of suggestions to the pastors and officers of Sunday-schools." 
— Ziorts Herald. 

" Secretary Dunning has done an important work in preparing this volume, which 
ought to be read by every Sunday-school superintendent, librarian, pastor, and 
teacher. It is not lengthy, and every chapter is just to the point." — Christian 
Union. 

"It is exceedingly practical and sensible, is written with unusual vigor, is thor- 
oughly interesting, is unsectarian, and has, in an Appendix, a list of works suitable 
for a library. The portion of it which deals with the selection of books is specially 
valuable, and the volume only needs to become known to gain a large sale among all 
denominations." — Congregationalist. 

" Reviews the subject of Sunday-school libraries with a great deal of practical 
wisdom derived from experience." — Literary World, 



Price, postpaid, 60 cents. 



Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, Boston. 




lh 



A CHURC1 



BY KEY. C. L. GOODELL, D.D. 



Postpaid, 50 cents. 



"We know no book which contains in small compass so much that 
a young pastor ought to know as is found in these seventy odd pages. 
The style is so fresh and interesting, so clear and inspiring, that he who 
begins will read to the end." — Advance. 

"A round of wise suggestions for effective, successful pastoral ser- 
vice." — Literary World. 

" Dr. Goodell is a large, sunshiny, devoted pastor." 

" These are the words of experience, and he is ' master ' of choice 
English." — Golden Rule. 

" Dr. Goodell's success in building up his own churches enables him to 
write such a book wisely and effectively, and its suggestions will go on 
doing good in this permanent form for years to come." — The Congrega- 
tionalist. 

" No man can read Dr. Goodell's book without his soul being stirred 
to do his best." — Our Church Work. 

" The warmth of a great heart throbs through this volume, and the 
success of the author in building up churches is here accounted for. 
Valuable suggestions are on every page." — Christian Union. 

"Not a treatise on architecture, not at least of the brick and mortar 
variety, nor is it at all in the line of Mr. Buskin's ' Notes on the Construc- 
tion of Sheepfolds,' though it has a grace in it which that fastidious 
author would recognize. It is a collection of pointed, pithy, and preg- 
nant papers addressed to pastors, culminating in those which were con- 
tributed to the Con gregationalist 'by the graceful and loving hand that 
presides at the Pilgrim Parsonage ' in St. Louis. We advise all pastors 
to read them." — Independent. 



CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING 

SOCIETY. 



SABBATH ESSAYS. 



WORK OF PERMANENT VALUE ON A THEME 
OF VITAL IMPORTANCE. 

Price, $1.50. 

As a treatise on the Sabbath, designed to meet all ordinary 
inquiries on the subject, it will be invaluable to Pastors, Sabbath- 
School Teachers, Public and Private Libraries. It is the most 
valuable contribution recently made to the literature on the Sabbath 
question. 

The book contains thirty-eight essays and addresses, discussing 
the Sabbath in thirty-eight different aspects and relations. The 
essays are divided into sections, as follows: "The Sabbath in 
Nature,'' "The Sabbath in the Word of God," "The Sabbath in 
History," "The Sabbath in the State and in Society." The 
addresses follow, twelve in number, most of them on practical 
questions of Sabbath observance. A Historical Sketch on Sabbath 
Conventions closes the volume. The views of some of the foremost 
men of all the evangelical denominations are here brought together, 
presenting this great subject on all sides, furnishing a discussion 
that seems complete, and making the volume an invaluable text- 
book on the Sabbath question. 

For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent, post-paid, on 
receipt of price, by 

Congregational Publishing Society, Boston. 

GEO. P. SMITH, Agent. 






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